The 1959 Injurious Weeds Act does not just apply to ragwort. It names four more species as well: broad leaved dock, creeping thistle, curled dock, and the spear thistle . The park has all of them.
Continue reading “Creeping thistle”Creeping thistle
Ragwort again
This year the park produced beautiful hay: a variety of grasses, dry, sweet smelling, full of wildflower and not a single shred of ragwort anywhere.
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Blatant vandalism
Caught in the act, a grey squirrel stripping bark from a willow tree near the footbridge into Village Green; spotted, photographed and chased away by Ian Bushell
Continue readingGrowing trees
The climate scientists are finally persuaded that Southwick Country Park’s solution to global warming is the right way to go. They should have asked us sooner.
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Water plantain ( Alisma plantago-aquatica) thriving in the Lambrok Tributary
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Tufted vetch
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
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Roses in the rain.
photos by Suzanne Humphries
Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) taken at dawn this morning by DKG.
Gallery of colours
A gallery of colour to lift the sombre, over-grown greens of all the latest pictures on the home page.
Hogweed
This has been a year of astonishing growth: more grass than we have ever seen, nettles at head height, trees and shrubs sagging under the weight of blossom. Our common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) is standing seven feet tall in places with flower-heads the size of dinner plates.
Continue reading “Hogweed”A walk in the park
by Ian Bushell
Continue reading “A walk in the park”
This is Stachys sylvatica, commonly known as hedge nettle, hedge stachys or hedge woundwort. It is growing at the far end of Lambrok Meadow.
Continue readingNettle bed safari
If you look closely enough, you can see that the nettles are beginning to flower. If you look even closer you will find a whole miniature ecosystem living in the nettle bed: sap suckers, nectar feeders, predators and terrifying creatures that hunt the predators.
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Chris Seymour’s pictures of the park’s common spotted orchids.
Elena Aschiopoaiei has emailed her pictures of rain-soaked larch cones in the park.
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Dog roses (Rosa canina) are in flower in the park’s hedges. We are promised good weekend weather so come and see.
Hemlock water dropwort
This is hemlock water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata), by some accounts the UK’s most poisonous plant.
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Common spotted orchids from DKG
The first common spotted orchid of the year, photographed by Ian Bushell. Send in your own orchid photographs to friendsofscp@outlook.com and we will publish them all.
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The yellow iris are in flower!
Click here for more picturesBarbarea vulgaris
Barbarea vulgaris also called bittercress, herb barbara, rocketcress, yellow rocketcress, winter rocket, and wound rocket
Continue reading “Barbarea vulgaris”Pink hawthorn
In the middle of the park, the hawthorn blossom is pink; not uniformly pink but definitely pink in places. It seems to be confined to the hedges at the bottom end of Sleepers Field right through to the hedge at the top of the little triangular field that doesn’t have a name. It’s very pretty.
Continue reading “Pink hawthorn”Common mouse ear
This is common mouse ear (Cerastium fontanum), sometimes called mouse ear chickweed. It grows all over the park for most of the year.
Continue reading “Common mouse ear”Thyme leaved speedwell
Veronica serpyllifolia
Germander speedwell – Veronica chamaedrys
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 