Alder leafmines at Leybourne Lakes

I thought I came across a few Caloptilia falconipennela "leaf-edge folds" throughout the Common Alders on the southern side of "The Ocean".


Near the causeway I found a few more mines - including this possible identification of the moth caterpillar Phyllonorycter kleemannella = klemannella (The Dark Alder Midget). The season is only right-ish (mines are supposedly found in May/June and July/August with a possible third generation) but it is supposed to be a common species, and it cannot really be anything else! The caterpillar is supposed to attack the Common, Grey and Italian Alders in the UK, but not the Green Alder. This is a rather poor picture of the mine on the underside of the leaf, not very large, and certainly not extending the majority of the distance between midrib and leaf margin. Just visible near the top are three small creases?

and these pictures are of the larva extricated from the above mine, which is pale and typical of all the Phyllonorycter species except Phyllonorycter froelichiella, where the larva is grey. Once the larva pupates it is found in a white cocoon attached to the roof of the mine, well away from the frass piled in a corner. Before emergence the pupa wriggles to be partly sticking out of the mine, ready to emerge!

and the sawfly Heterarthus vagans on Common Alder, Alnus glutinosa. This common sawfly caterpillar is supposed to attack the Common, Grey and Italian Alders in the UK, but not the Green Alder.

This is probably the pre-pupal stage of Heterarthus vagans, extricated from an apparent pupation disc of the large brown mine of rather indeterminate shape. There appeared to be several discs on the leaf, but actually only one live insect. However the guides suggest that there is normally only one mine per leaf.

Footling for leafmines at Broadwater Warren

Looked at the Frangula alnus and fairly quickly I located the now long-vacated small spiral mines of what I eventually found out to be Bucculatrix frangutella, the Buckthorn Bent-wing, on quite a few of the leaves. This seems to me to be a delightful oddity. When does the larva decide to straighten its mine out, generally to be followed shortly by its leaving of the mine entirely, and conversion to the habit of window-paning the leaves!

Low down on one particular bush there also appeared to be a lot of window-paning, possibly caused by the further feeding of the larvae.

Trottiscliffe to Ryarsh Wood and back along the Pilgrim's Way

Chalara has made some progress around the village of Trottiscliffe and a lot in Ryarsh Wood.

Field Pansy and Common Toadflax.

Meopham and District Walking Group

Lovely walk with the group. Broomrape was the plant on the bean field.

LONG walk Meopham - Luddesdown, etc. with Monty

Bucculatrix ulmella possibly, Phyllonorycter esperella and possibly something like the start of a Parornix on the Hornbeam leaves.

Hypericum humifusum at Tudeley Walks

I went looking for the Trailing St Johns-wort on the more acid sandier side of the road today and the second St Johns-wort I came across was indeed this target plant of the day. The plant was a small roundish mat with the thin stems lying prostrate on the sandy soil.

Brakeybank wood

It is several years since I have been to this great RSPB reserve, and it was a great pleasure to return.

I should work harder on my plant identification, and pick various taxa to work on. Hypericum is a very interesting genus to deal with, a bit of a challenge.

One of the common species in Dene Park Woods is the Perforate St Johns-wort, H. perforatum with its roundish stems, gland-dotted leaves and tiny sessile black dots on the petal and leaf edges, it is a lovely plant and one I hope I have got clearly under my belt.

However I didn't see it today along the tracks in Brakeybank Woods, and I initially thought the plant I was seeing was the Square-stalked St Johns-wort, H. tetrapterum, or possibly the Slender St Johns-wort, H. pulchrum, as another possible choice as the plants were clearly not the Perforate St Johns-wort I was used to seeing. Here is a view of the flowers, neat in shape and a clear yellow in colour, only just over half the size of the larger and more golden flowers of the Perforate St Johns-wort.

This plant really didn't seem to be H. pulchrum. The flowers I was looking at were never red-tinged, and the flowers were very weakly and sessilely marked with black glands. Another possibility was the hybrid between Perforate and Imperforate, H. x desetangsii, with 2 strong lines and two weak lines on the stem, but the flowers I was looking at were too small for this, and the squareness of the stem was too clear to mistake. So after going back the following day, looking carefully at all the plants along the track and also looking at all the books and websites I could find, I finally settled on my own original answer  - the Square-stalked St Johns-wort, Hypericum tetrapterum! Ole! 

Here is a view of the leaves, showing them to be slightly grey and matt, and broad to the base. If you look very closely you can see the tiny translucent glands in the leaves - these are not visible to the naked eye in the field in my view, despite being clearly noted in the floras:

It was particularly interesting that it was only when I had looked at one particular website, Naturespot of Rutlandshire, that I discovered that at least they think that the leaves of the Square-stalked are roughly the same shape as those of the Slender St Johns-wort - a feature that isn't spelt out in any of the books and that had greatly confused me for two whole days, and that at one point had led me to conclude that I might be looking at H. pulchrum all along.

H. pulchrum may be called the Slender St Johns-wort not just for its slender stems but also partly because the inflorescence appears in on-line photos to be far more open and upright.

Trailing St. Johns-wort, H. humifusum, is quite well spread across the country and should be quite easily spotted as a trailing species on non-calcareous soils. Perhaps it would be a good idea to look for this species, together with the Slender St Johns-wort on the more acid sandy soils on the Pembury Walks side of the reserve.