Procumbent Yellow Sorrel

Procumbent Yellow Sorrel (Oxalis corniculata)...Morwick

Yesterday a new plant caught my eye when we called into Morwick farm for an ice cream. There was a carpet of Procumbent Yellow Sorrel growing along the main track near the farmhouse. Earlier in the morning I was walking around the old brickworks at Stobswood and admiring the amount of ground colour and thinking about the recent government decision to give builders the power to have compulsory purchase on brown field sites across the country. I wonder if this is the last time I see this site at its floral best. Along with the plants were hundreds of Butterflies chiefly Ringlets and Meadow browns with good numbers of Common Blue, Speckled wood and a nice Red Admiral. There are three species of Stonecrop at Stobswood with Biting (Sedum acre), White (S. album) and English (S. anglicum) above. All with a dubious origin no doubt but a delight to see in flower. Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans) was also in flower. In 2002 I came across a few flowering plants of Broad leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) growing in Grangewood near the entrance to the brickworks and the following year I counted over 70 at the edge of a pine plantation there. I have noticed these plants increasing over the years and yesterday I counted over a thousand plants in flower all in Grangewood.