8/20/2019 B&BC Botanical Society Newsletter - Issue 2 (2015)

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2015  was another fantastic and busy year for the Society  …so we thought we would put together

another issue of the newsletter, with this

year’s highlights. 

We hope you enjoy reading through it

and join us next year for more recording!

Newsletter Issue 2 | Autumn/Winter 2015

In this Issue: 

Sutton Park Flora  - The first season of recording

Plus other highlights from 2015 including

site visit reports from:

Clayhanger SSSI | Daw End

Branch Canal | Fens Pools

Smooth-stalked Sedge (Carex laevigata)

Sutton Park July 2015 

SAVE THE DATE! The 2016 AGM will take place on

Saturday 27 th

 February 2016 at 11am

Winterbourne House and Garden, University of Birmingham,

58 Edgbaston Park Road,

Birmingham, B15 2RT.

Note: entrance to Winterbourne Garden

will be free for this event!

Hope to see you there!

Other dates for your diary:

Provisional Field Recording Dates 2016

23/03/2016  30/06/2016 

07/04/2016  05/07/2016 

16/04/2016 03/08/2016 

26/04/2016 13/08/2016 

09/05/2016 25/08/2016 

20/05/2016 09/09/2016  01/06/2016 19/09/2016 

11/06/2016 30/09/2016 

21/06/2016

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 2 │ B&BC Botanical Society Newsletter Autumn/Winter 2015

FENS POOLS 15TH July 2015

We met Anne Daly, our leader for the day, outside the

warden's base at the junction of Pensnett Road and Bryce

Road in Brierley Hill, and after negotiating the busy B4179, we

headed off along the section of canal known as ‘Wide Water’ 

in the direction of Fens Pools. The typical vegetation along

the canal towpath comprises Field Maple, Hazel, Alder,

Rowan, Guelder-rose, willows and some very large poplars,

and in one spot a large Crataegus pedicillatus  Cockspur

Thorn , the first of many interesting plants we were to encounter during the day. 

Moving on from where the canal ends we headed along the

main path, keeping Grove Pool to our left and Middle Pool to

the right, and leaving this path onto a smaller path, we made

our way to the “Perry Ponds”, a group of small ponds named

in honour of the late naturalist Alan Perry, one of the two

local men (the other being Brian Jones) who had the vision of

saving the Fens as a nature reserve, and started the Pensnett

Wildlife Group, without which the reserve may never have

been created.

The ponds were originally excavated to provide a cluster of

breeding ponds for amphibians, and in particular, for the

large population of Great Crested Newts that Fens Pools is

renowned for. The typical vegetation in and around the pond

margins included Eleocharis palustris  Common Spike-rush ,

Myosotis laxa  Tufted Forget-me-not , Juncus tenuis  Slender

Rush , Elodea nuttallii   Nuttall’s Waterweed , Ceratophyllum

emersum Rigid Hornwort and in each of the small ponds we

encountered a submerged aquatic not found in the others.

The first pond contained a colony of  Zanichellia palustris 

Horned Pondweed and a small amount of Lagarosiphon

major   Curly Waterweed, the next held Potamogeton

berchtoldii   Small Pondweed and in another, on drying out

mud, mixed in with Callitriche  sp. was a small-flowered

Crowfoot with capillary leaves only which we tentatively

determined as Ranunculus trichophyllus  Thread-leaved

Water-crowfoot, a plant previously not recorded in

Birmingham and the Black Country so we were very pleased

when it was later confirmed as this by John Hawksford, BSBI

Recorder for Staffordshire.

Once satisfied that we had recorded everything from the

Perry Ponds we continued along the main path towards the

cindery mounds where Cerastium arvense Field Mouse-ear, a

low-growing, early-flowering perennial has been known from for many years. In Britain this rather large-flowered, native

Mouse-ear is frequent only in the east of England, and as far

as we are aware the only extant Birmingham and Black

Country site for this plant is here at Fens Pools. Several plants

were soon located although, as we expected they were well

into seed at this time of the year.

Moving on in the direction of the ridge and furrow meadow

we passed more Slender Rush. This  increasing alien rush is

relatively tolerant of trampling and is often found along path

edges.

The “Perry Pond” containing Ranunculus

trichophyllus Thread-leaved Water-crowfoot 

Ranunculus trichophyllus Thread-leaved Water-crowfoot 

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On reaching the ridge and furrow meadow, known locally as

“the bumpy field” because the ridges and furrows of a by -

gone agricultural system are still very evident in places, it was

noticeable that there were far fewer ponies here since the

clampdown by Dudley Council on stray horses. For many

years this meadow has traditionally been a favourite spot for

locals to graze their ponies and with very few animals here now the long-term effect this will have on the flora in this

area remains to be seen. Ophioglossum vulgatum  Adder’s-

tongue fern has long been known from this meadow and at

one time was relatively easy to find. In recent years heavy

grazing from tethered ponies has all but eradicated it from

the open parts of the meadow so a challenge was put out to

the group to see who would be the first to find an Adder’s-

tongue. After several minutes of searching the honour went

to Paul Reade who discovered several plants tucked well in

amongst bracken, one of the few places that the ponies tend

to avoid. A closer inspection revealed this to be quite an

extensive colony which extended well into the bracken

thicket.

From here we made our way up the bank which brought us

into an area of short, open grassland where lunch was taken

seated on the brickwork remains of a building that once stood

here. Suitably refreshed we set off in the general direction of

Russells Hall Hospital, following a well-defined track which

soon became wooded on both sides. In the half-shade at the

side of this track were four flowering Verbascum lychnitis 

White Mullein plants, somewhat of a rarity elsewhere in

B&BC. The scrubby woodland here also contains many

naturalised Cotoneasters, the most frequent of them being

Cotoneaster rehderi  Bullate Cotoneaster. Others Cotoneasters

found here include C. horizontalis Wall Cotoneaster , C.

 franchetii Franchet’s Cotoneaster and  C. simonsii   Himalayan

Cotoneaster. Skirting the metal-railed fence enclosing a

factory, and descending a slope towards a wet area, we

passed a colony of Sambucus ebulus  Dwarf Elder on both

sides of the path whose flowers were just beginning to open,

and a little further on, we encountered a fine specimen of  Athyrium filix-femina  Lady Fern growing next to a patch of

Osmunda regalis Royal Fern, another local rarity.

Time constraints prevented us from exploring the large area

of open grassland that opened out before us, so reluctantly

we started to make our way back, pausing briefly to admire more White Mulleins and a small colony of Oenothera

cambrica  Small-flowered Evening-primrose in a clearing just

off the main path. As we headed along the top of the bank

overlooking Fens Pool we could not resist stopping once again

to admire the colony of Inula conyzae Ploughman’s-spikenard

growing on the top of the bank overlooking Fens Pool ,  and

yet another of the many intriguing plants found at this site.

Besides the plants Fens Pools are rich in other wildlife and

during our visit I noted Ringlet, Painted Lady, Small

Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper, Large White,

Common Blue Damselfly and Broad-bodied Chaser.

Two further visits were made to Fens Pools later in July and

many more species were added to the list for this site. Our

record sheets have been submitted to EcoRecord and to John

Hawksford, the BSBI recorder for Staffordshire and will form

part of the BSBI database for Atlas 2020 which will provide:  

Maps for both native and introduced taxa

Interactive maps able to display frequency and

distribution at a variety of scales

Analyses of changes, summarising the state of the

British and Irish flora in 2020

Should anyone wish to become more involved with recording

for Atlas 2020, information on how to do so can be found at

http://www.bsbi.org.uk/atlas_2020.html 

Mike Poulton

Sambucus ebulus Dwarf Elder  

Osmunda regalis Royal Fern 

http://www.bsbi.org.uk/atlas_2020.html http://www.bsbi.org.uk/atlas_2020.html http://www.bsbi.org.uk/atlas_2020.html

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