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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · 1d

Seems like the new, urban population of Jersey Cudweed has finally reached North Norfolk - I found these this week in Sheringham and Holt. Might be interesting to speculate on the effects of possible gene flow with the native population that is not too far away now...

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · 4d

Oh, that's a shame. I've had that with crocuses.

A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · 7d

The wonderful Galanthus olga-reginae flowering in our garden today. Don't you just love snowdrop time!

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · 26d

Great Mullein can be ruled out because it has smaller, less broadly open flowers and the stigma is a different shape. You need to check details of the stem leaves, which can't be seen in the photos, but my guess would be for Dense-flowered Mullein as the petals are not strongly overlapping.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Oct 1

Don't wish to worry you, but there's over 600 parish churches in Norfolk!! 🙂

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 19

Krüper's Nuthatch is almost endemic to Turkey, extending only into the neighbouring Caucasus of Georgia and Russia and (as here) onto the island of Lesvos, Greece. Great to watch a family group coming to drink with my group yesterday.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 17

Plants with a view: Recurved Thorn-apple (Datura innoxia), Molyvos, Lesvos, Greece. Introduced as a garden ornamental from Central America.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 15

Today's Highlight - the much desired and very intriguing False Hemp (Datisca cannabina). An entirely new plant family for me. See Alt text on pictures for more.

Datisca cannabina is in the family Datiscaceae; the family has only one genus and two species. Datisca cannabina occurs from the Turkey, eastwards through southern Central Asia to Nepal and just reaches into political Europe in the Eastern Aegean Islands. In Greece (and thus Europe) it is only known from Lesbos, Samos and a small area of wetern Crete. The only other species in the family (Datisca glomerata) occurs in extreme southwestern USA.

Datisca cannabina is highly unusual in being one of a very small number of plants that are androdioecious. This means that individual plants may bear either male flowers or perfect flowers (flowers with both male and female parts). This picture shows the old flowering spike of a male-flowered plant.

Flowers beginning to form fruits on a hermaphrodite plant with perfect flowers.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 14

Today's Highlight - the large and spectacular Bivon's Meadow Saffron (Colchicum bivonae). Lesbos, Greece.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 8

Spectacular views of the Black-winged Kite at Hickling today. What a beauty!!!

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 5

First there was Canadian Fleabane (Erigeron canadensis), now we have some newcomers, rapidly spreading across our landscapes. These two are trail-blazing across Norfolk these days - see Alt text for more...

Pyramidal Fleabane (Conyza sumatrensis) is native to South and Central America and arrived as an urban weed in our cities. It is now pretty much everywhere, even an occasional adventive on sandy beaches. These plants at Happisburgh show the classic shape of mature plants, tapering outwards to about three quarters of the way up, then finishing with a pyramidal top, producing an overall kite-shaped appearance. Note, in the UK, the erroneous name 'Guernsey Fleabane' is used, simply because it was found there by someone - not much use as a name in its native, range, though!!

Bilbao Fleabane (Erigeron floribundus) is also native to South and Central America and is more recent in its appearance here in Norfolk. But it's wasting no time in stealing a march across the region. Compared with Pyramidal Fleabane, the outline of mature plants produces a more narrowly columnar plant but with a broadly rounded head of flowers (for those of us old enough to remember them, not unlike a mature English Elm). Alternative English names include 'Tall Fleabane' (it's no taller than any of the other species) and 'Many-flowered Fleabane' (again, no more so than other species), so, like the other recent colonist, it still could do with a decent English name that reflects its true qualities or associations.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Sep 4

Sea-heath (Frankenia laevis) is considered a scarce plant in Norfolk, so it was a pleasant surprise to find a good quantity of this smart little plant on my recent coastal plant survey. They seem to especially thrive in the cracks on concrete revetments, turning bright red in the hot, dry weather.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 28

Sometimes it's nice to post a 'just because picture. Blue Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea)... just because they're amazing!

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 26

Do you remember when we were kids, and we just 'went to the beach' and had fun?!

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 24

Still managing to fit beach plant recording days in between other work. Here's a few more from the past week (see alt text for more)...

Common Restharrow (Ononis repens) gets its vernacular name from its former habit of 'resting' harrows; their deep roots would snag the harrow and interfere with cultivations. These deep roots allow restharrows to find water and to remain relatively green during the drought periods we get so regularly now, and also come in useful in stabilising wind blown sand.

Prickly Saltwort (Salsola kali) is easily overlooked due to its uninspiring appearance and lack of showy flowers, but it's not easy to overlook if you're on the beach with no shoes on!

Yellow Horned Poppies (Glaucium flavum) rise defiantly against wind and tide where all other plants are beaten into submission. Rising seawater levels are resulting in a greater frequency of overwashing along North Norfolk's coastline, to the point that there are no longer any typical strandline plants left in many places now, just stubborn horned poppies and deep-rooted Curled Dock (Rumex crispus).

Defiant in a different way, Sea Pearlwort (Sagina maritima) is uncommon in Norfolk, but hangs on in a few places due to its diminutive size. I found several plants growing in the narrow expansion gaps between concrete sections of Sheringham's promenade.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 21

We know that politicians in all parties support people who maime wildlife for pleasure, because those people pay huge amounts of money for lobbyists to line the politicians' pockets. So here's the perfect opportunity to ban the maiming for good and use health risk as a sneaky excuse. But they won't

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 21

Feeding the ducks creates a sideline in interesting plant records - Niger (Guizotia abyssinica) growing beside Salthouse duckpond.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 21

Early morning at Salthouse Beach yesterday.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 21

Not easy to see all of the features for certain, but the floral parts look good for either densiflorum or phlomoides. The rather blousy petals, apparently non-decurrent leaves and the overall pale grey look to the felted leaves tend to suggest phlomoides.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 19

A popular twist... Our native Black Poplar (Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia) has a distinctive associate - Pemphigus spyrothecae, an aphid species that produces a distinctive gall in the leaf stalks which, over time, twist into a spiral and turns bright red.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 19

Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis) is native to North America, where it is generally known as Jewelweed and is famous for its sap, that has the ability to counteract the effects of Poison-ivy. Not so useful here in Norfolk, but not so invasive as its Himalayan cousin, either!

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 19

Undesirables! It was disappointing to come across several of the highly invasive, alien, Red Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) in the River Bure below Aylesham yesterday. Seems the local Otters are at least keeping them in check, though...

A Signal Crayfish checking me out as it feeds on detritus on the surface of bur-reed leaves.

The inner face of a Red Signal Crayfish claw, seen here as the remains of an Otter meal. The red colouration is only on the inner surface, and is waved as a 'signal' to other crayfish, hence the vernacular name.

The outer face of the claw shows no red, but has a distinctive, pale spot.

Otter spraint, complete with carapace fragments and small claws of Signal Crayfish.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 14

The amazing diversity of plants - that the seed-bearing cone of one species can dwarf the entire plant of another species is truly wonderful. Corsican Pine (Pinus nigra laricio) cone and Creeping Ladies-tresses (Goodyera repens), North Norfolk.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 14

Mainland UK's only native population of Jersey Cudweed hangs on by a thread at its sole North Norfolk location, but there's a nice crop of young seedlings coming on for next year.

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A Naturalist Abroad @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social · Aug 13

Common Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), sadly much declined in our area, so always a delight to find a sizeable colony of plants on the Norfolk coast.

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