Eight members of the Botany group met at the Cumbria Wildlife Trust Reserve, on a sunny day with some clouds in the sky, which could have produced some much needed rain, but this did not materialise. The reserve occupies a short section of the old Stainmore Railway and Eden Valley branch line and where the two converge an interesting area has been created with cuttings and embankments. The reserve is maintained by annual summer sheep grazing and manual shrub control.
This was not the first time we had visited the reserve but after the wet, cold winter and spring, and then the warm weather which followed, the reserve looked very different. One of the embankments which was facing south was looking very parched and only seedheads of plants were found. The growth of the grasses was very lush and these swamped some of the flowering plants but this enabled the group to revise some of their grass identification. However, we did see two different species of Fragrant orchid – Gymnadenia conopsea(Common Fragrant), and G. densiflora(Marsh Fragrant) as well as some Common spotted orchids Dactylorhiza fuchsia. The Betonica officinalis(Betony) was looking very attractive growing amongst the grasses
This was an interesting visit seeing the reserve in different conditions from our previous visit.
Jean Kendrew