Giant Bellflower Campanula latifolia
Stone Bramble Rubus saxatilis
Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris
A group of six members of the Botany Group met on a warm, sunny day at the car park at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Smardale reserve outside Kirkby Stephen. We walked to the reserve seeing a lovely example of Giant Bellflower Campanula latifolia along the way. Once in the reserve, we took the disused railway path. The first section of the path was relatively quiet but we did see some fine examples of Common Figwort Scrophularia nodosa and Nipplewort Lapsana communis.
As we neared the sunny embankments closer to the viaduct, we began to see a larger range of plants and were particularly struck by the Stone Bramble Rubus saxatilis, creeping along the side of the path and showing its wonderful berries. We also enjoyed seeing the Common Spotted Orchids Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Common Fragrant Orchids Gymnadenia conopsea flowering well along the banks.
Also noteworthy were lots of Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris coming into flower and attracting a lot of insects.
Once across the viaduct, we enjoyed seeing lots of limestone-loving plants as well a lots of wonderful butterflies including Small Skippers and Small Tortoiseshells. The path was lined with more Bloody Crane’s-bill as well as Agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria, Creeping Cinquefoil Potentilla recta, Betony Betonica officinalis and Common Restharrow Onosis reptans. Over lunch in a disused quarry, we sat among more orchids and butterflies enjoying the warm sunshine.
Having reached the meadows beyond the quarry, we then returned to the cars slowly enjoying the flowers and butterflies and trying to avoid the biting insects! The birdlife was good too with both a Pied Flycatcher and a Redstart spotted.
Bloody Crane’s-bill Geranium sanguineum
White Common Fragrant Orchid Gymnadienia conopsea albiflora
Marsh Helleborine Epipactus palustris
Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii var rhodochila
The recce the previous week had also indicated that Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Waitby Greenriggs – next door to Smardale – was also looking particularly good. So we all drove round to park near the site and headed down into the disused railway cutting. The flowers and butterflies were glorious with lots of orchids along the path and up the slopes. We headed into the second section of the site and climbed down to the bottom of the embankment where we saw a lot of Marsh Helleborines Epipactus palustris and a rare variant of a Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii var rhodochila.
We returned to the cars tired but having had a wonderful day in the sunshine.
Report and photographs by Jane Welsh
