Down in England

 July and August involved visits to family in various parts of England. Although I am there to enjoy my family, I keep an eye out for plants that are new to me.  The first visit was to Sunbury-on- Thames. While walking along the road to collect grandchildren from school, I spotted a grass growing at the edge of the pavement that was unlike anything I had seen before, and looked like fingers. There was more of it growing in the adjacent drive, between the paving.

Hairy Finger Grass

It turned out to be Hairy Finger Grass, Digitaria sanguinalis. You can see where the name came from (digit meaning finger) and the stems were hairy.  The BSBI distribution map shows that it is spreading north but has not reached my area, yet.

I think it is very likely that in this case the seed was introduced with the imported sand used when laying the pavers in the drive. 

In a naturally sandy path in Sunbury Park, there were a series of little holes.  If you were patient and waited for a while, the digger of these holes came along.  

Apologies for the length and quality of the video (24s) but my video editing skills are nil. I can't identify what kind of wasp it is. Let me know if you can!

An easier insect to identify was a Jersey Tiger moth that got into the house and had to be rescued.

Later in the week, we went down to Somerset and I did a bit of botanising in Crewkerne. One new plant was Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris).

Caper Spurge

The plant exudes a white liquid when broken which can produce nasty blisters on the skin and the plant is poisonous so not one to meddle with. There are lots of fascinating facts about it here including that medieval beggars used it to induce blisters on their skin in the hope of eliciting sympathy (and a monetary contribution). I also saw the red berries of Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum), another plant that is common elsewhere but not in Newtonmore and the Cairngorms.

Cuckoo Pint berries

The final visit was to North Cheshire and South Lancashire. I was shocked by the amount of Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) by any waterways. It is an invasive weed and it was certainly out of control in the places I visited.

Himalayan Balsam on the far bank of the canal

The bees and butterflies found it attractive though so at least it was benefiting some of the wildlife.

Small blue butterfly on Himalayan Balsam