The guidance given by the couple we met the day before was
acted on immediately (see last blog) and after a bit of botanical research the
1st day of June’s outing would take us along the River Ure from the
bridge at Wensley, hopefully, seeing wood cranesbill plants along the way. The floods of last winter were very evident
at the start with large section of path washed away and debris stuck in lower
branches of riverside trees. A
kingfisher was heard by me and seen by Janet.
A wet hollow had tall sedges which had me puzzled but when checked later
turned out to be Carex acuta (Slender Tufted-sedge) and debates about
cranesbill leaves (wood and meadow leaves are fairly similar with
 |
| Wood cranesbill |
 |
| Wood cranesbill leaves top and Meadow cranesbill bottom |
the meadow
ones being much more deeply divided) were ongoing until we found the wood
cranesbill, in flower, right by the path.
Debate over. Meadow cranesbill
plants weren’t yet in flower, and yes the leaves were different but easy to see
when the plants were growing side by side and what was meant by ‘deeply
divided’ became more obvious. As I took
a few photographs, cocksfoot grass (Dactylis glomerata) crept into my view and,
there again, was choke fungus growing on some of the
 |
| Immature choke fungus on cocksfoot grass |
stems. However, when found in the past this fungus
was orange but this one white, was it young or something different? I had recently been sent a paper which had
appeared in The Mycologist, Volume 19, in May 2005 (Spooner & Kemp (2005).
Epichloë in Britain. P 2-87) which explained that for quite a while this
fungus, which had been reported from several different species of grass, had
all been identified as Epichloë typhina but this paper explained that there
were 7 species in the UK, and that many of these were wrongly identified as
this species. Firstly, my find was in
the early stages of development being white and would turn the more familiar
orange colour as it matured, the colour of all the ones previously found. Occurring on cocksfoot, the species would be E.
typhina according to the key in the above paper. I know from memory that all my previous finds
of this fungus had been from other grass species but sadly, the grass species
at the time wasn’t identified. I first
found this fungus whilst out on a botanical outing with Ian Green and happily
named it, in ignorance as E. typhina.
So, more searching will be needed, possibly in the locations where
previously found, so the species of grass can be identified and then the
correct species of choke fungus.
However, finding the choke fungus and giving it the right name hides an
amazing and highly evolved relationship going on in the background. The first word I learnt related to this
fungus was Heterothallic. “Heterothallic
 |
| Choke fungus on unidentified grass |
species have sexes that reside in different individuals. The term is applied particularly to
distinguish heterothallic fungi, which require two compatible partners to
produce sexual spores” (Wikipedia). This
relationship involves the host grass and insects. The infected grass contains toxic substances
making it less susceptible to grazing by herbivores and insect attack. The name "choke" arises from the
sterilising or choking of the infected grass where the fungus develops on the
stem, stopping the grasses ability to produce seed. The relationship with insects involves a
Botanophila species of fly. The fly
lands on the fungus to feed and to lay eggs which subsequently hatch into
larvae which in turn feed on the fungus.
After laying its eggs, the fly visits another grass stem affected by the
fungus carrying with it tiny fungus cells called spermatia which it ingested
whilst feeding on the first choke affected grass. These cells are excreted onto the new choke-infected
grass whilst the fly is feeding. Once
deposited, the spermatia cross-fertilise with other cells to enable the fungus
to reproduce to continue its life cycle. This cross-fertilisation relies entirely on
the fly transporting the spermatia to another site. Once the cross-fertilisation has taken place
the choke fungus can develop spores which, when mature, are ejected enabling the
fungus to spread to new sites by infecting seeds on other grasses flowering
nearby. The infected seeds carry the
fungus through to the new growing season and when conditions are right the
orange fungus will appear on the grass stem to continue the life-cycle. Amazing.
Having caught up with wood cranesbill we continued on the
path by the river passing some amazingly colourful meadows glowing yellow with
masses of flowering bulbous buttercups (Ranunculus bulbosus). The riverbank produced large bittercress (Cardamine
amara), the woods
 |
| Bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) in meadow |
masses of red campion and the hybrid between primrose and
cowslip the false oxlip (Primula x polyantha) and something new by one of the
walls turned out to be field madder (Sherardia arvensis). But, the best was yet to come. Many of these flower-rich meadows have been
designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and are maintained by
cutting for hay once the plants have set seeds.
At one farm we asked the farmer if it would be okay to carefully visit
one of these
 |
| Burnt orchid (Neotinea ustulata) |
 |
| Green-winged orchid (Anacamptis morio) |
meadows in the hope of seeing a couple of the rarer UK orchids and
as we walked through the buttercups and yellow rattle flowers Janet was first
to spot our main target burnt orchid (also known as burnt-tip - Neotinea
ustulata) a small, creamy white orchid with a distinct dark purple top to the
flower spike, hence its name. In all,
eight flowers were seen along with several more of the green-winged orchids (Anacamptis
morio) an amazing sight with masses of burnet-saxifrage flowers all around
which is oddly named as it is neither a burnet (rose family) nor a
saxifrage! Chuffed to bits we carefully
made our way back to the path and back to the riverside path where a kingfisher
was heard but not seen.
When we lived on the Isle of Rum NNR (1973-76) the then Chief
Warden left the island to work for the same organisation (then Nature
Conservancy Council now Natural England) in the north-east of England, taking
on responsibility for a project involving the protection and conservation of
the lady’s slipper orchid in the early 1980s.
At that time, and still to this day, there was only one known natural population
of this plant, a single clone, in the whole of the UK and due to increasing
pressure of folk
 |
| Kilnsey Crag |
 |
| Climber on Kilnsey Crag |
wanting to see it, it was given 24 hour protection during the
growing season for a number of years from 1971.
Despite that, part of the plant was dug up in 1975 emphasising the need
to try and increase the number of plants at what still remains ‘the’ secret
site, and if that was successful, introduce their offspring to receptor sites
in the north of England. Easier said
than done. Initially, the plants were
fertilised by hand in addition to what might have taken place naturally by insects,
but, being an orchid, results were very slow to manifest themselves. For long-lived orchids it could take
 |
| Bird's-eye primrose (Primula farinosa) growing with lady's slipper orchids |
 |
| Lady's-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) at Kilnsey Park |
many
years to know if this would be successful.
In 1983 Kew Gardens became involved in trying to propagate the orchid
under laboratory conditions and it was at this time that Peter Corkhill, ex of
Rum, took on responsibility for the conservation of this orchid in the field
whilst working with the staff from Kew.
After many trials, seedlings were successfully grown but when
transplanted into the wild, despite the plants initially surviving, none
survived long-term. Those initial
seedlings seemed to have been planted out too early (2-3 years after
germinating) and eventually it was found that they needed to be grown on for
5-7 years before being let loose in the wild.
Initially seedlings were introduced to 12 sites across the plant’s
former range and by 2003, 9 of these sites had been successfully
established. By 2010, 16 sites had been
established with plants at four of the sites producing seed pods. Having decided that, without a lot of luck,
we were unlikely to ‘come across’ the original site we decided to visit one of
the successful introduction sites at Kilnsey Park, close to Kilnsey Crag where
the plant used to grow. We weren’t
disappointed and had to wonder what it
 |
| Common twayblades (Neottia ovata) |
 |
| 14-spot ladybird (Propylea 14-punctata) |
would have been like over a century ago
to have seen this plant, in quantity, at one of its many sites before it was
collected, almost, to extinction. On our
way home we called in to an orchid meadow we visited last year the Leyburn Old
Glebe Nature Reserve where once again we were amazed by the sheer number of
orchids, mainly green-winged but with a big population of twayblades and just a
single spike of burnt orchid. A bonus
was a 14-spot ladybird (Propylea 14-punctata) wandering amongst the flowers. At the top of the slope of the meadow we
could see out across the river and
 |
| View from the Leyburn Old Glebe Nature Reserve! |
hills whilst down below a field full of
heavily fertilised grass was being given one of probably several doses of
chemicals! Despite that, it was good to
read that in 2006 the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in conjunction
with many other bodies developed the Hay Time Project aimed at restoring 200
hectares of upland and lowland meadows in and close to the National Park and bringing
together farmers and the public to highlight what is amazing about these
meadows and the plants and insects they support by organising the annual
Flowers of the Dales Festival. Perhaps a
National Park closer to home could take a leaf out of their book and ditch
development for conservation?
It was Saturday, a market day in Masham and something we
just had see. Along with stalls selling
s/h books, tools and postcards there were others selling local produce giving
us lots of choices for our evening meal.
On the way back to the house we wandered via the bowling green, tennis
courts and cricket pitch, the latter very busy with youngsters and teenagers
practicing cricket. Quite an enjoyable
half hour was spent, cups of tea in hand, watching all this activity whilst in
the ‘middle’ a couple of folk were preparing the pitch for a league cricket
match due to start early in the afternoon.
However, this was the day we had planned a visit to a bit of moorland
above a place called
 |
| "I don't believe it!" |
Colsterdale where there were some interesting looking rock
outcrops and broadleaved woodland and with lunch packed, off we went. As we wandered up Birk Gill the sun
disappeared and we realised that we were back in typical blaeberry/heather moorland,
just like home, all being managed for red grouse production. A bee with a reddish ‘bum’ turned out to be
the blaeberry/mountain bumblebee (Bombus monticola), one to check later re its UK
distribution. Amazingly, this location
was the only site locally where it had previously been seen! As the heather moor turned to boggy heath we
started to disappear into the cloud and mist and then realised we had followed
the wrong track. This wasn’t surprising
as the one we should have followed had disappeared under the heather obviously
not regularly used. We were back at the
house by later afternoon so just time to nip to the White Bear pub for drinks
before being tempted back to the cricket pitch to see the cricketer teams in
action. Overhead a pair of parent
 |
| One of several avocets at Nosterfield Reserve |
 |
| Wall butterfly (Lasiommata megerasix) |
curlews were chasing around after a buzzard, whilst on the pitch a ball which
had been knocked for a six was lost in deep grass behind the score-board
building! We thought we could get used
to this sort of summer living – but never did find out if the Masham team
won. Avocets, several, were again
spotted at the Nosterfield Nature Reserve along with a wall butterfly. However it was the next day that proved quite
an interesting day out, a visit to Malham Cove, the biggest test being full
sun, 250C heat, and little shelter as we did the circular walk
around the famous cove. We didn’t need
to worry about taking the wrong path today as there were probably hundreds of
people doing various bits of
 |
| Malham Cove |
 |
| House martin nests at the Cove |
the same walk.
At the Cove the RSPB were manning the peregrine-watch stand and as we
got to the base of the Cove one of the birds was seen flying overhead. By the path we were pleased to see clumps of Jacob's-ladder
flowers (Polemonium caeruleum) whilst screaming overhead were swifts and house
martins, both of which nested on the rocky overhang of the limestone cove. The path we wanted took us up and over the
top of the Cove and on to an area of limestone pavement: an amazing geological
feature that I know very little about.
However, I was aware that some unusual plants grow there and I just
hoped the many sheep wandering about hadn’t eaten them all! The big blocks of
 |
| Jacob's-ladder flowers |
limestone popping up from
the surrounding grasslands are known as ‘clints’ and, due to the effect of
erosion, big gaps running deep into the clints are known as ‘grykes’ and it was
in these grykes that many plants live, out of reach of grazing animals. More salad burnet was all around and amongst
the limestone as we climbed the slope were hart’s tongue fern, wall rue (fern),
herb robert and quaking grass. The two
ferns were in many of the grykes that I visited but the one I was seeking, green
spleenwort (Asplenium viride) managed to evade me. However, in reading about this rocky habitat
I noted that there was another fern worth keeping an eye open for – the
appropriately named limestone fern (Gymnocarpium robertianum) and, as some of
the limestone blocks protruded upwards enough
 |
| Limestone fern (Gymnocarpium robertianum) |
 |
| Glands found on limestone fern |
to create small ‘cliffs’ I saw
Janet wandering off into the distance as I spent a little time checking a
couple of these outcrops, particularly the ones that were north-facing hence
avoiding the full sun. Was the fern I was
looking at the oak fern or the limestone fern?
Both look very similar and, thankfully, there was enough of the fern to
allow me to take just one frond to check once home. If I had been familiar with the fern my
hand-lens would have told me that I had indeed found the limestone fern, the
backs of the fronds and the stems of the fern are covered in ‘glandular hairs’,
the tips of these hairs have tiny blobs of a liquid secreted by the plant,
something the oak fern doesn’t have. You
live and learn. As we descended from the
Cove towards the road at Janet’s Foss I noticed a couple of ice-lolly sticks by
the path and said to Janet “that’s a bit unusual all the way out here”. As we reached the road, still a mile or so
out of Malham village the lolly stick mystery was solved: there was a mobile
catering van – selling ice creams, a perfect spot to stop, get a bit of shelter
from the sun, and enjoy a couple of 99’s before following the Gordale Beck back
to the village.
The last day of our holiday saw us being tempted back into
‘orchid territory’ doing a circular walk from a small village near to Leyburn,
down to the River Ure and back again.
Near the river strange mounds in the fields were possible yellow meadow
ant nests but despite stopping to check several, no ants were seen. Sadly, without seeing any ants it’s not
possible to say whether they were Lasius
 |
| Ant nest mounds? |
flavus, so can’t forward as a
record. A calling green woodpecker
nearby, known to feed on these ants, was probably happier to dig into the
mounds than me to see if ants were present.
At this stage we were quite close to the river and once again I shouted
to Janet that there was a kingfisher calling nearby and as I searched for it through
my binoculars she saw it fly behind use, following a dried up section of old
riverbed! Janet therefore won the ’spot
the kingfisher’ contest 2-0! On this
outing two
 |
| Cramp balls or King Alfred's cakes fungus |
more burnt orchids were found and as we headed back along a path
towards the car several black, bun-shaped fungi on a dead section of ash turned
out to be cramp balls or King Alfred’s cakes (Daldinia concentrica) something
I’d not knowingly seen before. The next
day it was back on the road heading north arriving home just 9 days before
daughter Ruth’s wedding – help!
Those nine days went by in a blur, the first of those days
saw Janet cracking on with food preparations for the Friday night family
gathering and for the ‘afternoon tea’ following the marriage ceremony and me
visiting the local builders merchant for wood for the plinth on which the
bride, groom and vicar would stand for the actual marriage. In between times I caught up with the last of
my evening wader counts and the second and last of the BTO breeding bird
surveys. The wood
 |
| A typical timber harvester |
arrived on the Monday
for the plinth and construction started, whilst in the evening I set off for
the last of the evening woodcock surveys near Carrbridge. I was in for a surprise! As I left the car and headed down to the
River Dulnain I could hear, in the distance, the sound of some sort of vehicle
and the further I walked I realised there was a timber harvester working –
right in the bit of plantation where I normally stand to do the survey. My survey started at 10pm, and here I was,
with twenty minutes to go, faced with a huge machine felling and processing
trees. To undertake the survey is a
three hour commitment, and, with little chance to re-visit in the next couple
of weeks, I decided to get as near to my normal survey location (about 70 metres
away) and do the count from there. The
beauty of this decision was that I was out of the dense plantation, was in more
open, birch woodland, and I could see a lot more of the surrounding woodland,
though not quite as important as most contacts are made via the birds calling
as they are roding overhead. As I
settled down the midges arrived in their hundreds but thankfully I had some
spray with me, stopping the bites but not the annoyance. Almost immediately the first bird flew by
overhead. At 10.15pm the timber
harvester
 |
| Laura preparing wedding flower displays |
stopped but too late for me to move.
In all, twelve roding contacts were made by the end time of 11.15pm, a
great result compared to the two earlier visits and with the good news that the
BTO would be happy to accept the count and that all future counts could be done
from the same spot. Walking back to the
car was pretty amazing with a red glow in the north, enough light to see all
around despite the midnight hour approaching.
The next day wasn’t too good with heavy rain and a forecast for the run-up
to wedding day looked equally wet. The
plinth was made and installed and help was given with installing the large
marquees with everyone getting quite damp in the process. Looking ahead the BBC Weather website showed
that the rain should ease and that the wedding day could be cloudy
 |
| Bride and bridesmaid preparations |
but dry from
midday on. Fingers-crossed. Family started to arrive on the Thursday and
the gathering of 30 folk on Friday went well thanks to Janet’s amazing preparation
and planning. Delivering food for the
afternoon tea mid-morning on wedding day found the garden venue resplendent
thanks to Louise and Hugh’s efforts and driving back home to get ready I was
sure I spotted a break in the dark clouds.
As bride and bridesmaid prepared themselves in our front room I popped
upstairs to go through my ‘father of the bride’ speech one last time and, with
the weather website showing
 |
| Congratulations Ruth and Lewis |
improving weather by 2pm we planned our drive over,
chauffeured by brother Peter, a little later than we should have (brides
prerogative!) arriving on site just as the skies cleared and the sun came out,
a weather window that stayed with us for the rest of the day. Perfect, and not too sure who was watching
over us that day. The Sunday evening
dance went well and wee Harry, who was staying with us played his part by
sleeping on until 8.30am both mornings.
By Tuesday we said cheerio to
 |
| All too much for grandad and Harry! |
the last of the departing family and by
lunch-time the plinth in the wedding garden was dismantled, the last bit of
evidence that something major had taken place in the garden just a few days
earlier. In the afternoon I popped into
the local ironmongers to buy some canes, and by late afternoon, with red and
white tape tied on, the first were installed as the next major event of the
summer was upon us.
The next three days were spent walking fairly accurate
‘lines’ back and forth across the famous Flowerfield orchid meadow, counting
the number of lesser butterfly orchids (LBOs).
Whilst on holiday a message had arrived that this year looked like a
bumper one for the orchids – something of
 |
| Lesser butterfly orchids |
 |
| Small white orchid (centre) with fragrant and heath spotted orchids |
an understatement. As I walked, hand-tally counter clicking
away, the numbers started to build and by the Friday the last click showed that
there were 5600 LBOs flowering this year, a thousand more than the last highest
count! Amazing. As far as we can determine, this is the
highest count to date for this orchid in the UK, putting the site into the highest
category of importance despite the meadow having no official designation or
protection. I returned to the meadow for
one last count the next day – the small white orchids. Most of these flower spikes occupy quite a
small area within the bigger meadow, making the count a little more difficult
when walking the lines, trying not to squash any flowers whilst clicking away
to make as accurate a count as possible.
2600 orchids were counted,
 |
| Wow! |
probably as high a count of small whites
anywhere in the UK adding hugely to the overall importance of the site. As was happening last year, the orchid is
spreading out from its original area with about a dozen plants seen in new
areas this year. David, who lives
opposite the meadow can remember when there were less than a dozen plants all
told, making the current count and the build up over the last few years all the
more remarkable. A hybrid orchid, which
was first seen a couple of years ago, was
 |
| The hybrid x Pseudorhiza bruniana orchid |
flowering again (2 flower spikes) so
photos were taken showing flower sizes and plant height and sent off to expert
Richard at Kew to try and get a definitive name, and confirmation of the two
parents and his reply contained a pleasant surprise. “You have found two plants of the hybrid
between Pseudorchis albida [small white] and Dactylorhiza maculate [heath
spotted]. To the best of my knowledge,
this intergeneric hybrid has only previously been found twice in the British
Isles: in Skye and Orkney, and has been named x Pseudorhiza bruniana”. Another great record for Jane and Jeremy, the
owners of the meadow, who have been brilliant custodians since the importance
of the site was mentioned to them many years ago.
So, a brilliant month, with lots of excitement and good
finds and with two families still in recovery mode!
Enjoy the read
Stewart and Janet
Comparison Wood and Meadow cranesbills, at bottom of photos
click on “Leaves not as deeply cut as those of Meadow cranesbill” to see that
species.
Isle of Rum NNR
Leyburn Old Glebe Nature Reserve
Limestone pavement (click on name at bottom of web-page)
NBN Gateway
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of the British Isles
Highland Biological Recording Group (HBRG)
and how to join HBRG
 |
| Orchid beetle (Dascillus cervinus) on small white orchid |
 |
| Northern brown argus butterfly seen during orchid count |
 |
| A perfect end to Ruth and Lewis's wedding day - thank you |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
