My lunchtime walk

[SusanS]

Hi I thought I would invite you all to join me on my lunch time walk. 
The place I work at is a former iron works site, surrounded by the slag banks from the iron workings.  These banks and the adjacent canal are a pleasant place to spend the lunch break as they are a great habitat for wildflowers, birds and assorted creepy crawlies.

Most of the plants are common british natives, and whilst not as spectacular as some of their foreign counterparts they are very pretty and easier to reach - I only get an hour for lunch. 

First a few habitat shots.  From a distance the area doesn't look promising.  In places the slag is visible in the sparse turf and after a few weeks of dry weather it looks very dry and barren.

[SusanS]

A couple of weeks ago the orchids were at their best.
The Dactylorhiza are mostly D. fuchsii with some D. purpurella and hybrids.

[SusanS]

As well as the "showy" plants there are lots of more common plants that are easily overlooked.

[Maggi Young]

My goodness , Susan, with a selection of plants like this you are well assured or a reviving lunchtime walk. So many types!
That clumpng dactylorhiza (5) is a bit of a cracker.... when so often we see them  in ones and twos in the wild.... very impressive indeed.

[SusanS]

Thanks Maggi.  It is a lovely walk and surprisingly quiet to say it is less than two minutes walk from the factory.  In a couple of months time I will not need to take any sarnies with me - looks like it will be a bumper crop of blackberries this year. 

[Darren]

In common with my better half, I also occasionally have Bee Orchids near my workplace but am more reluctant to take pictures as they usually grow around the University netball court and the young ladies seem to look worried when a scruffy old bloke with a camera is loitering nearby   

[Maggi Young]

Darren , I think you are sensible to let discretion be the better part of valour in this case...... no point in taking the risk......

[cohan]

great stuff, susan! lots of pretties, looks like a great lunchtime escape
native plants are always a treat, even if not rare, and especially when they have taken it on themselves to beautify an industrial waste site!

i like the sedums--are these native to your area?

[SusanS]

Hi Cohan, it is a great place to escape to, there have been a few occasions when I have had to run back to work as I have lost track of the time.

Sedum acre is native to the area, however according to the books, Sedum album is naturalized in northern Britain but native in the south of the country. 

How the authors of these field guides came to this conclusion I don't really know, perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how these decisions are made. 

Darren and I grow a lot of sedums in the garden and know how quickly and easily they spread, so it is possible the plants on the slag banks have been introduced.

At the moment the area is resplendent with Origanum vulgare, which I was surprised to learn was a british native.  I had always assumed it was a Mediterranean plant.  It smells wonderful and the bees certainly like it. 

[cohan]

Hi Cohan, it is a great place to escape to, there have been a few occasions when I have had to run back to work as I have lost track of the time.

Sedum acre is native to the area, however according to the books, Sedum album is naturalized in northern Britain but native in the south of the country. 

How the authors of these field guides came to this conclusion I don't really know, perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how these decisions are made. 

Darren and I grow a lot of sedums in the garden and know how quickly and easily they spread, so it is possible the plants on the slag banks have been introduced.

At the moment the area is resplendent with Origanum vulgare, which I was surprised to learn was a british native.  I had always assumed it was a Mediterranean plant.  It smells wonderful and the bees certainly like it. 

must be tricky indeed to know where a plant originated in a relatively small, contiguous area such as the main part of britain easier when its clearly from another continent.. harder still with plants which had uses for humans since early times as some sedums did, not sure about these little guys.. i'd suppose they might look to old writings, herbals etc if they mention the plants, otherwise,, there might be some genetic clues?

[Stephenb]

At the moment the area is resplendent with Origanum vulgare, which I was surprised to learn was a british native.  I had always assumed it was a Mediterranean plant.  It smells wonderful and the bees certainly like it. 

Great that you are showing your local flora. As many European natives have spread around the world with people, I think we have a tendency to forget them as something of beauty. I've been lucky enough to travel quite a lot around the world, but there's little to beat a British Bluebell woodland or Norwegian Wood Anemone/Hepatica wood in spring when flowering en masse.

Re- Origanum vulgare: It's even a native up here in central Norway and I think it's even found a few places north of the arctic circle. As part of a European project on this species I've promised to collect some material locally in the next couple of weeks...