“As the church bell struck 10.00am we headed to the ancient Yew tree in front of the church where historically there have been a good number of Autumn Lady’s – tresses (Spiranthes spiralis). Disappointingly the area was barren of this charming little orchid. However we had found 4-5 on the way down where they had previously not been recorded.

This site is currently covered in various yellow blooms, so for botanical ‘fun’ we selected as many species as we could find and laid them out for identification! Not an easy task, but we did identify five different ‘dandelions’:

– Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
– Autumn Hawkbit (Scorzoneroides autumnalis)
– Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata)
– Smooth Hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris)
– Lesser Hawkbit (Leontodon saxitalis)

At the upper end of the churchyard we took time to notice the differences between the Upright Yellow-sorrel (Oxalis stricta) and Procumbant Yellow-sorrel (Oxalis corniculata). We were also delighted to find Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) with a few vivid yellow flowers. The coup of the day was certainly the stunning single plant of Musk Mallow (Malva moschata), with its delicate pale pink flowers and deeply cut upper leaves.

In total we recorded over 74 species of wildflower, in just a couple of hours!”

Here, with thanks to Allison and her group, are details of the species that they identified.