This is a fairly new Kent Wildlife Trust reserve, valuable as another example of chalk woodland and downland. The woodland requires quite a lot of clearing, a lot down to volunteers, and hard, often back-breaking work. So far it appears to have been quite successful, and many grassland species do seem to have re-appeared, presumably partly from a buried seed bank, as well as partly from plants surviving in clearings such as the Ground Pine, Ajuga chamaepitys. This species has seed that has been proved to last for 50 or more years in the soil. This labiate has unusual extended yellow flowers with red spots, held prostrately together with the elongate hairy trifoliate leaves, on a red typically Lamiaceae square-angled stem. These appear to be quite tiny stressed plants to me!
The Ground Pine is also found at Boarley Farm a few miles away, at several sites on the chalk hills of the Valley of Visions and also at the Plantlife Reserve at Ranscombe Farm on the other side of the Medway. It behaves as an annual, growing on disturbed chalky or sandy soils, and these flowers are relatively early (normally flowering season is June-October according to Plantlife). Management can be on a cultivated but unfertilised and unsprayed headland, or on quarry tracks or on grazed thin chalk downland where competition from other plants is not too intense. Currently it is known to be found on a few dozen sites at most in the UK, although it is not considered threatened in Europe. Management Guide for Ground Pine.
There was plenty of wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, rather than the equally common barren strawberry, Fragaria sterilis. The petals are longer than the sepals, and also broadly cover them so that they cannot be seen from above, unlike sterilis. The terminal leaflet tooth also projects clearly beyond its neighbours, unlike sterilis, according to Rose, although this is not clear in every leaf in this picture. The runners are long, rather than short, and the leaves are said to be glossy green as well as hairy, rather than blue-green. The flower stalks are said to have adpressed hairs, although this is unclear from the fruit stalks here. It is also not a hautbois strawberry, Fragaria moschata, which doesn't have achenes down to the base of the false fruit, together with many other differences.
Another typical plant of the chalk is the rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, a beautiful flower. This is a prostrate perennial shrub. It has small oval or oblong leaves, woolly below with long basal stipules. The petals are crinkly in the bud, and the flower stalks are downy.
other members of the genus are very local and rare, so I shouldn't have to worry about a mistaken ID!
This is another plant equally typical of the chalk, the fairy flax, Linum catharticum.
The Ground Pine is also found at Boarley Farm a few miles away, at several sites on the chalk hills of the Valley of Visions and also at the Plantlife Reserve at Ranscombe Farm on the other side of the Medway. It behaves as an annual, growing on disturbed chalky or sandy soils, and these flowers are relatively early (normally flowering season is June-October according to Plantlife). Management can be on a cultivated but unfertilised and unsprayed headland, or on quarry tracks or on grazed thin chalk downland where competition from other plants is not too intense. Currently it is known to be found on a few dozen sites at most in the UK, although it is not considered threatened in Europe. Management Guide for Ground Pine.
There was plenty of wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, rather than the equally common barren strawberry, Fragaria sterilis. The petals are longer than the sepals, and also broadly cover them so that they cannot be seen from above, unlike sterilis. The terminal leaflet tooth also projects clearly beyond its neighbours, unlike sterilis, according to Rose, although this is not clear in every leaf in this picture. The runners are long, rather than short, and the leaves are said to be glossy green as well as hairy, rather than blue-green. The flower stalks are said to have adpressed hairs, although this is unclear from the fruit stalks here. It is also not a hautbois strawberry, Fragaria moschata, which doesn't have achenes down to the base of the false fruit, together with many other differences.
Another typical plant of the chalk is the rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, a beautiful flower. This is a prostrate perennial shrub. It has small oval or oblong leaves, woolly below with long basal stipules. The petals are crinkly in the bud, and the flower stalks are downy.
other members of the genus are very local and rare, so I shouldn't have to worry about a mistaken ID!
This is another plant equally typical of the chalk, the fairy flax, Linum catharticum.
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