Blue Fleabane (Erigeron acer)
Shaggy Inkcap ( Coprinus comatus)
Old Brickworks looking North with Grangewood in the background, the phone mast was erected to boost the signal for passing rail users.
Looking West with the Cheviot hills in the distance, doesn't look much but it is a botanic paradise.
Blue Fleabane is at its Northern limit in the UK in Northumberland with only a few records from some coastal areas. Looking in the Eastern corner of the old brickworks where the area is stony I was delighted to come across about 40 plants. This is the first time I have ever seen them and a boost to the numbers of plants found at this excellent brown field site. I may have overlooked them for some years as this is the area where the old colliery railway siding were many years ago and piles of old bricks stood here and I largely ignored this part of the site. There were a couple of other new plants but obvious garden escapes. Lots of Shaggy inkcaps around and some late flowering plants like Common Storksbill, scarlet pimpernel and Common Mallow. I've put in a couple of pics of part of the old brickworks but I will take some more and continue to look for more plants as this site is earmarked for housing in the future.
4 comments:
Blue Fleabane is one of my favourite flowers, possibly because it flowers late but it's just an unassuming character.
It seems not to reappear where it grew last year, but moves around.
A good record for you on the edge of the tundra!
I love blue fleabane and I think it deserves much wider acclaim as it is so pretty. Lovely, lovely.
Old disturbed sites are so interesting botanically, if not as lush as chalk downland.
Thanks for id of fungi on my blog. Very much appreciated.
Nige I found a few Blue Fleabane at Howick earlier this year, I just thought they were garden escapes.
Thanks all for the comments. The plant is a real beauty, very subtle and can be easily overlooked. Stew...Swann says its a native on coastal dunes but a colonist on bare stony ground such as the long gone old ship ballast hills. Howick is not on the distribution map so it is worth sending that record in to Chris. There are only a handful of county records from Druridge, Holy Island, Bamburgh and Alnmouth.
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