The Lyons Share

I shot up to Frog Firle by High and Over with Michael Blencowe and Bob Eade this evening to look for the Quails that were recorded there yesterday. It was VERY windy though and they were very hard to hear. We heard two or three but there was no chance of being able to see them though. How many more years will go by before I finally see this bird? Grrrrrr!

On the way back to the car I spotted this plant which was a nice surprise. I have only ever seen it once before at Therfield Heath in Hertfordshire and never before in Sussex. It's the unusually named Bastard-toadflax and it's not all that common. There were at least four plants growing in the middle of the path and I am sure there would have been more if I had looked harder. Not a bad booby prize! I have a well earned day off tomorrow after working all weekend and I am off to Rye Harbour for a day of natural history.

Jo and I went up to High and Over to look for White Horehound and soon found it not far south east down the hill from the white horse itself. The plant is a new one for me and I'm afraid it had almost totally gone over so the photos are not too good. I like to think of the labiates as 'poor man's orchids' and this one is pretty odd. Apparently an alternative name is Marvel which I think is better than White Horehound. Strange how the few flowers that were left were arranged very symmetrically.

A slightly odd scent to the leaves which is quite week but very artificial smelling. The plant is covered in white hairs and the leaves look really frosty as well as being very wrinkled. The clusters of flowers are almost spherical and the calyx tubes are really densely packed in together adding to this effect. The flowers themselves are tiny with the top lip reduced to two white 'horns'. All the plants I saw were growing in areas of disturbed earth  on chalk-grassland caused by rabbits along with lots of Viper's Bugloss and Teasel. There is also a big Red Star-thistle in the car park that is impossible to miss.