Tag Archives: Lesser Celandine

Natural History

Primroses by the River Usk

Llangynidr Bridge on the River Usk
Llangynidr Bridge on the River Usk

Having by good fortune been able to get away for a few days, we drove down to Monmouthshire and had a fine walk from the mediaeval stone bridge at Llangynidr along the beautiful River Usk.

Primroses Celandines Wood Anemones by River Usk
Primroses Celandines Wood Anemones by River Usk

The path had been damaged by the floods, but now the waters have receded the path is surrounded by primroses, celandines and wood anemones in delightful combination: specially good to see near a path, as so many wild primroses have vanished into thoughtless people’s gardens in England.

Tolkienesque Oak and rapids on River Usk
Tolkienesque Oak and rapids on River Usk

The River Usk – the Welsh name is from the same root as Whisky (Uisge), meaning simply ‘water’ – swirled over little rapids, a pied wagtail hawking for flies from the midstream rocks. Apparently the river names Exe and Wye share this origin; while Avon also just means ‘river’. In the days when people lived by just one river and rarely walked further than the nearest market town, ‘the river’ must have been a sufficient name.  As well as these etymologies, Tolkien would have liked the gnarled Old Forest oak trees beside the river, very mossy at the base, gripping the sandstone rocks with their roots.

Common Cup Lichen
Common Cup Lichen

Lichens grew to good size in the clean air. A piece of beard lichen (Usnea) had fallen from a branch on to the path; common cup lichen Cladonia conoiocraea grew on a mossy wall.

Ewe with twin lambs
Ewe with twin lambs

On the return walk through the fields we saw this ewe feeding her twin lambs.

Conservation, Nature Reserves

Midland Hawthorn on Ickenham Marsh

Blackthorn on Ickenham marsh
Blackthorn on Ickenham marsh

On this lovely spring day I drove around the backstreets of Ickenham until I found my way to Austin’s Lane (there’s The Old Fox pub marking its start) and so to Ickenham Marsh nature reserve (London Wildlife Trust). It’s tucked away behind Northolt airfield: the second world war Spitfires have been replaced by transport planes and executive jets, but the result has been to keep development at bay. The marsh is bordered with great drifts of blackthorn, the soft white blossom lovely in the broad hedges. Chiffchaffs were singing all over, and a mistle thrush rasped out its harsh flight call. Even the dunnocks looked splendid, their grey and brown plumage catching the sun as they chased low around the bushes. The breeze brought the occasional whiff of aviation fuel, but still there were some small patches of common orange lichen, Xanthoria parietina, and the grey lichen of bare twigs, Parmelia.

Midland Hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata
Midland Hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata

A complete surprise was the Midland Hawthorn by the Hillingdon Trail which crosses the reserve. The bush is the same size and shape as the common Hawthorn, but the leaves are only very slightly notched rather than deeply divided, and the flowers have two styles, not one (easy to remember as the common Hawthorn is C. monogyna ‘one-female’). An uncommon or perhaps just an easily-overlooked plant, something old and special on the edge of London.

Lesser Celandine on Yeading Brook
Lesser Celandine on Yeading Brook

Also crossing the reserve, roughly northeast-southwest, is the Yeading Brook. I was just taking a photo of the first buttercups of spring, the lesser celandine, which likes wet muddy places, on the steep bank of the brook, when a kingfisher shot down the middle of the little stream, blue and turquoise. I turned to take my photo, and the kingfisher, or its mate, raced back past me again.