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I walked five miles for a stick?!
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday 20 July 2014 09:23
This is Babington's Leek, a form of the nationally scarce Wild Leek that grows on the sea front at Brighton by the Volks Railway. Amazingly, having lived here on and off for 18 years, half my life, I only saw it yesterday. This is for a number of reasons:
1) It flowers in the July and August when I always feel burned out and lose interest in wildlife.
2) There are way too many tourists in this part of the city so it's not usually a place I feel I want to visit.
3) Most perilously, there are literally hundreds of pubs to walk past and they are very inviting in this heat.
We almost failed on out mission when a small storm forced us to drink beer.
But we managed to soldier on. Other wildlife was thin on the ground but we did see some Common Broomrape and the nationally scarce bug Megalonotus sabulicola. I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw my first specimen of Babington's Leek missing a flower head. I believe "I walked five miles for a stick!" was said.
Fortunately there were more in flower a little further towards the Marina.
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I was wondering about these in June when i walked past them growing along Volks railway line. I wrongly assumed they were standard onions that had grown from tourists/traders chucking food waste. lol.
I will take a closer look now i know what they are. Thank you.