Common Centaury – Creeping Thistle and a lady – Gatekeeper Bracken – Stachys star jumps – Rosebay Wiggleherb – Wood Sage in dune woods – Buttonweed & Sea-heath on the tidal floodplain – Lesser Centaury – Rock Samphire
1. Common Centaury Centaurium erythraea and Common Bent Agrostis capillarisPound Green Coppice, Wyre Forest. 04.07.26.2. Painted Lady on Creeping Thistle Cirsium arvense. Pound Green Coppice, Wyre Forest. 04.07.26.3. Gatekeeper on Bracken Pteridium aquilinum at Pound Green Coppice, Wyre Forest. 04.07.26.4. Betony Betonica officinalis doing star-jumps along the edges of the W10 Oak-Bracken-Bramble woodland. Pound Green Coppice, Wyre Forest. 04.07.26.5. Rosebay Willowherb Chamaenerion angustifolium has become conspicuous this last week or so, picking out the disturbed ground along road verges and waysides alike. Leapgate Old Railway, Wilden. 05.07.26.6. Wood Sage Teucrium scorodonia making a living in the well-drained soils along the sandy woodland edges near Merthyr Mawr NNR, Glamorganshire. 03.06.26.7. Buttonweed Cotula coronopifolia occupying shallow, muddy depressions on the brackish floodplain of the River Ogmore, near Merthyr Mawr NNR. 30.06.26.7b. Buttonweed Cotula coronopifolia in habitat on exposed mud of the brackish tidal floodplain of the River Ogmore, Glamorganshire. 30.06.26.8. Sea-heath Frankenia laevis along a sandy trackside on the strandline between the dunes and the tidal floodplain of the River Ogmore near Merthyr Mawr NNR 30.06.26.8b. Sea-heath Frankenia laevisRiver Ogmore near Merthyr Mawr NNR 30.06.26.9. The sweetest plant – Lesser Centaury Centaurium pulchellum along sandy trackside near the dunes at Merthyr Mawr NNR. 02.07.26. [Keyed using Stace and noted the following: with flower stalks 2.5mm (within the 1-4mm range) with the main stem having only 3 internodes before branching].10. Rock Samphire Crithmum maritimum seemingly growing straight out of the rocks at Ogmore Beach, Glamorganshire. 02.07.26.
Notes: I was fortunate to be working in Glamorganshire this week near the Merthyr Mawr NNR. I referred to myself to my colleague Luke as a ‘landlocked botanist’, so I was hyped to see both Sea-heath and Buttonweed for the first time.
Other observations… Grasses are finishing up in lowland Worcestershire, with the countryside turning crispy and golden. Ragwort and Rosebay Willowherb create a perfect pairing, butterflies are loving life, and woodlands have become a sanctuary, especially the western Wyre Forest / Ribbesford.
Tom the Botanist 
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