Little Round Top Wood (OS map grid reference - NS4773) is an excellent 'bluebell wood' rarely visited by walkers - I spent the day listening for the songs of arriving warblers and trying to immortalize with photos the ephemeral newly-minted-lushness of spring foliage.
Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)
Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)
Cultivated or Domestic Apples (Malus domestica) are mostly descended from the Central Asian Wild Apple (Malus sieversii) which was brought to Europe and later crossed with closely related 'Malus series' apples, including our native Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris).
Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis)
Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis)
Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis)
Blackthorn or Sloe (Prunus spinosus)
crab spider (Xysticus cristatus) female
Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) in Little Round Top Wood
Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) in Little Round Top Wood
Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) in Little Round Top Wood
At this time of year, Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) forms a thick carpet of fresh green leaves in Little Round Top Wood. Few creatures seem to nibble at this pristine foliage, possibly due to its poisonous nature.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal (published in 1653) warns 'there is not a more fatal plant, native of our country, than this'. Ingestion causes severe haemorrhagic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.
Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
Gorse (Ulex europaeus)
I had a look at the steepest part of Little Round Top Wood (above the marsh) which will be overgrown with nettles & bracken, and inaccessible within a month or two.
Hairy St. John's-wort (Hypericum hirsutum) grows on the scrubby slope and Square-stalked St. John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum) grows in the marsh below. St. John's-worts, of which there are many species, are better identified by their leaves and stalks than by their golden-yellow flowers (which appear in late June).
Hairy St. John's-wort (Hypericum hirsutum)
Hairy St. John's-wort (Hypericum hirsutum)
Hairy St. John's-wort has a rounded, hairy stem and the leaves are hairy, elliptical in shape and do not possess the black gland-dots which are found on many other Hypericum species.
Wild Pansies (Viola tricolor)
