DHBlog031 · A round-up by Jean & Tom Smith
This year was the fourth year the group has taken part in the New Year's Plant Hunt (NYPH). Around eighteen people took part this year compared to eighteen people in 2023, thirty-five people in 2022 and thirteen people in 2021. This feels like a good level of participation given unfavourable weather overall between Saturday 30th December and Tuesday 2nd January, when the whole day was very wet and windy. This time there were two groups of 4 (Tony Fulford’s group at RSPB Arne and Wren Franklin’s family group at Buckland Newton) with the remainder of recorders in pairs or on their own.
The weather leading up to the 2024 NYPH consisted of very few frosts, hardly any dry days and high levels of rainfall, so this all seems to have allowed many species to continue flowering late and others to have started flowering early.
On 30th December we managed a successful pre-walk (including a café lunch break) of our Poole plant hunt scheduled for 2nd January (postponed until next now year due to adverse weather). We covered three grid squares seeing 48 species in flower overall: SZ0190 – 30 species (Swimming Pool and part of the Old Town); SZ0290 – 25 species (Baiter and southern part of Poole Park); SZ0291 – 23 species (Poole Park north and Parkstone Road area). Highlights included Greater Quaking-grass (Briza maxima), Hairy Buttercup (Ranunculus sarduous) and Sea Mayweed (Tripleurospermum maritimum).
Mariko Whyte was also plant hunting on 30th December in the Ham Common, Turlin Moor and Lytchett Bay area finding a total of 28 species in flower. This included a good mix of rather late and early flowering species and of note Dove’s-foot Crane's-bill (Geranium molle) which doesn’t normally feature in most New Year Plant Hunt lists.
Angela Swain and Hannah Boothman spent a very productive hour in Wimborne Minster on 30th November. This included residential street verges and town centre pavements. They found 24 species in flower including Early Forget-me-not (Myosotis ramosissima), Black Medick (Medicago lupulina) and Creeping Bent (Agrostis stolonifera).
On 31st December we explored areas around our home in Upton where over three grid squares, we found 52 flowering species altogether. The breakdown of the squares was SY9792 – 32 species; SY9892 – 30 species; SY9793 – 30 species. Some of our favourite finds included: Shaggy Soldier (Galinsoga quadriradiata), Musk Stork's-bill (Erodium moschatum) and Red Clover (Trifolium pratense).
Also out on the same day was Christina Hart-Davies who also briefly visited Poole Park, Boating Lake and nearby pavements finding 6 plants in flower in this perhaps rather too ‘tidy’ area including Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis).
Jon Crewe was also out on 31st December in the Bournemouth area in 4 squares SZ0993, SZ1093, SZ1091 and SZ1092 finding 23 species over 3 hours. Notable finds included: Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis), Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis) and Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus).
More people were out on 1st January, when at least the morning was dry and calm. Wren Franklin and family found 20 species around Buckland Newton including: Common Cudweed (Filago germanica), Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea), Red Campion (Silene dioica), Primrose (Primula vulgaris), Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) and Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis).
Tony Fulford’s group at RSPB Arne found 12 species in flower including four species of Heather – Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix), Dorset Heath (Erica ciliaris), Bell Heather (Erica cinerea) and Ling (Calluna vulgaris).
Sue and John East were out on New Year’s Day and once again surveyed Hinton St Mary ST7816 (lanes around the village) spending 115 minutes there. They saw 27 species in total including some good late flowerers such as: Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis) and some early flowerers such as Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) and Wavy Bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa).
Thanks to everyone who provided species lists and also anyone who reported back via the WhatsApp Group. As a whole the group saw 90 species in flower overall, much better than the 46 reported last year and more than the 86 reported in 2022. What a difference a year makes.
