Abbey Meadows

Abbey Meadows

Friday 26 May 2017

Fodder Burnet






Fodder Burnet



Hare's Tail Cottongrass

Pegswood Moor is a good place to look for plants though many have established themselves on poor soils around the main lake from seed mixes during restoration work of this former opencast coal site. I have not come across Fodder Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba ssp balearicum), formerly Sanguisorba minor ssp muricata before but there are hundreds of thousands of these plants in flower now mainly on the South and western shore of the lake. Another species established here is Hare's Tail Cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum) which appears to like former opencast sites in the lowlands away from its regular haunt of upland bogs. It is not the best place for bird sightings generally but always worth checking but recent sightings include hunting Long eared owl, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge warbler and Yellow wagtail. 

3 comments:

Stewart said...

Hi Nigel,
Is that different to Salad Burnet or is it a new name?

abbey meadows said...

It's a different species Stew. It is larger than Salad Burnet and the leaves have pointed saw like edges and are more deeply toothed and leaf stems are red. Some flowers have dangling stamens. It is not a native and occurs usually with seed mixes but don't know how long it persists. Worth a look at if your passing as its easy to see and may occur in old quarries or reclaimed land in your area. There's a good description on www.wildflowerfinder.org.uk.

Stewart said...

Cheers Nige...