columbine

wild aquilegia, or columbine in the Tamar valley. Garden varieties tend to have smaller nectar horns and paler colours. The flowers really are this vivid lilac blue. Columbine comes from the latin for dove because the nectar horns are supposed to look like five doves together.

black bryony

this rather magnificent climber is black bryony, the only native member of the yam family. It climbs by curling invariably in a clockwise direction (how does nature do this?). It is much more prominent in the autumn when it is covered in bright berries of varying hues (see bottom photo), but I have never seen it in flower before. I think the reason is that the little 6 petalled green-ish flowers are very inconspicuous.

out at last

Although winter and spring have been exceptionally mild and frost-free some plants have been quite slow to appear.  At long last the orchids have returned to Greenscoombe meadows, despite all the damage done to the surface earlier in the year. The top photo is of the lesser butterfly orchid, which is slender and fragrant, and below is a heath spotted orchid and a southern marsh orchid. These two species hybridise very easily and as a result of this the heath spotted orchids in the meadows are very variable in appearance.

Rowden lane

Rowden lane is marked by the red dashes, and runs from the crossroads at the top of Pound Lane (the entrance is next to the field where it is proposed to site the chicken factory) in a north easterly direction to the road that runs between Pempwell and Goosewell. The brown spot on the path marks approximately where the picture of bluebells was taken.The map indicates that the original route continues across the road towards Trecombe, and is funnel shaped which is probably related to its suggested use as a cattle drove.Only the path between the roads is now a bridal path.

bridle paths

Although the bluebells are past their best in the woods, they continue to flourish in shadier areas like this stretch of Rowden lane, an old cattle droving pathway now used as a bridle path. Buttercups and campion mix in with the bluebells to create some magic.

out with the clouts

The hawthorn is out!

and nothing goes to waste around here, exotic fallen Camelia flower tea