The Lyons Share

This is Rough Clover and it's actually a tick for me. The clincher is not in the detail of the flowers but the lateral veins on the leaves that thicken up and recurve just as they reach the edge of the leaf. You can see it better in the back lit photo below taken down the microscope. I went to Shoreham this afternoon with Peter Whitcomb, it's great to spend time in the field with other naturalists, something I don't get chance to do often. Peter has great knowledge of local botany and I always see something new when I go out with him!

Peter showed me where the Childing Pinks were too, although they are only just coming out and were not worth photographing. There are a lot of alien species too including this naturalised Italian Catchfly. Extra brownie points for the first person who gets the film I am referencing with this blog title.

Finally, there are loads of these metallic green beetles feeding on the yellow composites at the moment. I have seen them before by the marina, they are Psilothrix viridicoeruleus.