My Sidmouth Nature Diary

  One of the more common plants one will encounter when walking around Sidmouth is the hart's-tongue fern [Phyllitis scolopendrium]; it is common throughout the south west of England. Hart's-tongue is, in fact, a 'spleenwort' which is a sub-family of the fern group.  It can be found in woods, especially woodland on hill sides, hedgerows, among rocks, on walls, on the sides of ditches, even inside water wells. In short, it likes warm, darkish, damp places. It is an indicator plant of ancient woodland so where it occurs in woodland it is likely the woodland dates back over 600 years. Hart's-tongue can be abundant where the environment is suitable.  Unlike the 'classic' ferns that have rather complex leaf structures the hart's-tongue has a smooth, shiny, undivided leaf in its familiar 'deer's tongue' shape which is so unique and enables it to be easily identified. The Hart's-tongue is 'evergreen' and is in leaf all year round but pro...

  Walking the paths by the sea even though it is getting late in the season it is still possible to see this 'iconic' flower of the seaside, rock samphire [ Crithmum maritimum] . It is one of those plants that seems capable of growing in the most extreme conditions and, indeed, only grows in extreme conditions, on rocks, walls, shingle and barren conditions exposed to the weather and sea spray. Rock samphire looks as though it is not quite in flower even when it is! The flowers are cream or green and are umbrella shaped which is quite typical of the carrot family to which it belongs. Unlike other carrots however the leaves are very fleshy and this helps it store moisture and so thrive where other flowers cannot. It is also known as sea fennel and sea asparagus or just plain samphire but the name samphire is also used for other seaside plants such as glasswort. There is also a golden samphire which is totally unrelated.  This was once a popular food plant and was harvested and ...

  Polypody ferns [Polypdium vulgare] are not uncommon, they can be found on tree branches, walls and rocks, house roofs and also on bare earth on shady banks, often by water. They are much smaller than most other common ferns and their leaves are narrow and without 'sub-fronds' on its fronds; does that make sense? This specimen was growing on concrete on a path through the Byes. Their favoured habitat is certainly growing on oak trees in deciduous woodland and that is probably the easiest place to find them as long as you remember to look upwards occasionally. In Dorset I found them in many woodlands I would expect to find them here when I go looking at our local woods around the Sid Valley. There are three variations of polypody, the common, the Southern and the intermediate (or, in some books, the Western). Separating them is difficult unless you are an expert but Southern and intermediate prefer calcareous (chalk and lime) substrates and so are less likely to be found aroun...

  As I stride the streets of Sidmouth getting my daily (well, almost  daily) exercise I pass lawns and other grassy places that are kept short and often, at this time of year, they are covered in dandelions. Well I say 'dandelions' as that is what we tend to call all of this king of yellow flower that we see. Whilst you can see 'real' dandelions at any time of year they are most common in spring and early summer, but by October they are less so obvious so that begs the question, what are these 'dandelions' that can be seen commonly in October? Look in any wild flower book and you will see several pages of 'dandelions', my favourite book has illustrations of 36 species that all look the same! However, when you look more closely you start to see differences which, if you feel you want to name them, give you clues. So why is this photograph not of a dandelion? Firstly, the flower head is smaller than a dandelion; it has a shorter diameter and less densely p...

  Being a new arrival in Sidmouth I am discovering that my new surroundings are very different from where I have lived previously. The geology here, the different habitat types that it creates and so the species one sees means that there is always potential to find something I have not seen before.  This is treacle mustard [Erysimum cheiranthoides], it is a member of the cabbage, or cruciferae, family; it has four petals which is a characteristic of this group of plants. It is a low growing annual plant with cylindrical seed pods and it is the seed pods that help distinguish it from related plants. It favours bare ground, according to my field guide often occurring in sandy locations, and flowers from June through until September. The name 'treacle' mustard came from the Greek, theriaki, meaning antidote to poisonous bites as the plant was thought to have healing properties (Wikipedia). Research has shown the plant, like many of the cabbage family, contain chemicals which giv...