This month I decided on an early morning run up to the quarry as the forecast was for another very hot day. With a couple of notable exceptions, the vegetation on both the newly-colonised ground and the older spoil was not so very different to last month. The newly-colonised ground has greened up a bit now and one or two of the plants which flowered early in the season, like Fumitory, are staging something of a comeback with less competition from long grass.

More of a surprise is the crop of tiny field pansies starring the grass – from a distance the flowers are small enough to be mistaken for Eyebright!  Though they are a common weed of arable field margins, I haven’t seen them around Quarrington Hill before.  

Around the edges of the disturbed ground the late summer Apiaceae are coming into flower now including my favourite, Wild carrot, with its central dark floret.  The feathery bracts and bracteoles beneath the flower head, or umbel, look rather like an Elizabethan ruff. The central red floret, pigmented with anthocyanins, is supposed to help attract pollinating insects such as the soldier beetles which often cover carrot umbels at this time of year.  

The knapweeds are out too now, acting as a magnet for a range of pollinating butterflies. The other big change is that, as at Raisby Hill, Fragrant orchids have largely replaced last month’s spotted and marsh orchids.

This month I found 12 species in flower on the newly-recolonised disturbed ground as compared to 26 on the adjacent older spoil with only Rosebay willowherb in both areas – perhaps no surprise, given its invasive tendencies!

		Disturbed ground	‘Original’ vegetation on older spoil
Creeping buttercup	Ranunculus repens	p
Common fumitory	Fumaria officinalis	p
Slender St John’s-wort	Hypericum pulchrum		p
Field pansy	Viola arvensis	p
Dame’s violet	Hesperis matronalis	p
Charlock	Sinapis arvensis	p
Weld	Reseda luteola	p
Scarlet pimpernel	Anagallis arvensis	p
Creeping cinquefoil	Potentilla reptans		p
Blackberry	Rubus fruticosus agg.		p
Bird’s-foot-trefoil	Lotus corniculatus		p
Black medick	Medicago lupulinus		p
Red clover	Trifolium pratense		p
Bush vetch	Vicia sepium		p
Rosebay willowherb	Chamerion angustifolium	p	p
American willowherb	Epilobium ciliatum		p
Rough chervil	Chaerophyllum temulum	p
Wild carrot	Daucus carota ssp. carota		p
Upright hedge-parsley	Torilis japonica	p
Ribwort plantain	Plantago lanceolata		p
Eyebright	Euphrasia sp.		p
Harebell	Campanula rotundifolia		p
Crosswort	Cruciata laevipes		p
Welted thistle	Carduus crispus	p
Common knapweed	Centaurea nigra		p
Greater knapweed	Centaurea scabiosa		p
Marsh hawk’s beard	Crepis paludosa		p
Hawkweed	Hieracium agg.		p
Rough hawkbit	Leontodon hispidus		p
Common ragwort	Jacobaea vulgaris		p
Prickly sow-thistle	Sonchus asper		p
Smooth Sow-thistle	Sonchus oleraceus	p
Common spotted-orchid	Dactylorhiza fuchsii		p
Marsh fragrant-orchid	Gymnadenia densiflora		p
Common fragrant-orchid	Gymnadenia conopsea		p
Tufted hair-grass	Deschampsia cespitosa		p
Red fescue	Festuca rubra		p