There is a distinctly autumnal feel to the final day of October, when I finally make it to Raisby Hill.  Term has started and I have a new batch of OU students to settle in so free time has been in short supply.  After a couple of frosts and some strong winds, many of the trees have lost their leaves.  Silver birches, growing golden-yellow in the low sun are the beautiful exception.  Lovely as they are, I worry about the scrubby seedlings encroaching on the quarry spoil which is such a good habitat for Dark red helleborines and other orchids.

Much of what was hanging on in flower last month has gone now and there is no sign of things like the Eyebright and Scabious which were still flowering in nearby Bishop Middleham Quarry reserve last week.  There is still a little knapweed and a few Harebells in flower alongside a second flush of Wild thyme, though, and I am stuck again by the delicate beauty of Red clover when looked at up close.

As last month, much of what remains in flower belongs to the daisy family and I see a couple of yellow ones I hadn’t noticed before – Nipplewort, Lapsana communis and Rough hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus.  Alongside theses are the stalwarts I noticed flowering over so many months at Crowtrees LNR last year – White dead-nettle and Herb Robert.

Apart from the flowers, much of the visual interest in this visit came from seed heads and berries, along with some glorious autumn-coloured leaves. I didn’t notice the Bittersweet when it was in flower but the berries are certainly unmissable!

Here is what I found in flower this month – much reduced from last month.

Hop trefoil	Trifolium campestre
Red clover	Trifolium pratense
Herb-Robert	Geranium robertianum
Burnet-saxifrage	Pimpinella saxifrage
Yellow-wort	Blackstonia perfoliata
White dead-nettle	Lamium album
Wild thyme	Thymus polytrichum
Harebell	Campanula rotundifolia
Common knapweed	Centaurea nigra
Hawkweed	Hieracium agg.
Nipplewort	Lapsana communis
Rough hawkbit	Leontodon hispidus
Autumn hawkbit	Scorzoneroides autumnalis
Prickly sow-thistle	Sonchus oleraceus