Horsforth, Leeds

In and Around Horsforth

Sunday 6^th June 2021

Leader: Rita and Anthony Grainger

A day of good weather enabled us to take our time, guided by two locals, to explore this mixed area of suburbs, woodland and parks. A total flora list of a huge 246 taxa is credit to the guiding skills of Rita & Anthony and the time they have put into familiarizing themselves with this area, plus the able input of & erudition of the nine attendees (thanks additionally, of course, to Andrew for compiling the list). A total of 4.25 miles was walked (according to my Smartphone ‘Viewranger’ app), which, at a botanizing pace, was a fair distance to cover. Wetstone Plantation, King George’s Field & Hunger Hills Woods Local Nature Reserve were all included but, as there were suburbs always nearby, garden escapes featured well on the list, many ably identified by the botanical expertise present. The name ‘Hunger Hills’ apparently derives from the Old English or Norse word ‘hangra’ meaning a ’wooded hillside’. The area is near the northern limits of the Yorkshire Coalfields & many ‘Bell pits’ exist in the wooded area, planted over in 1785 by one W S Stanhope, and the wood is now replete with bluebells, which we were too late for, of course.

Some of the plants of interest seen were as follows.

Sticky Mouse-ear (Cerastium glomeratum), was an early find – much more glandular (& sticky!) than the commoner C. fontanum, also seen. Star-of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), (probably ssp. campestre), is a native plant to Eastern Britain but certainly a garden-escape here. Grigson (“The Englishman’s Flora”) states: “According to Sowerby’s ‘English Botany’ (1899), the bulbs are edible and are much eaten in the Near East – there known as “Dove’s Dung” – where they were dried & taken on journeys, especially on the Pilgrimage to Mecca; though fresh or in hay, this innocent seeming plant is poisonous to cattle”.

The easily-overlooked Spreading Meadow-grass (Poa humilis) was found, courtesy of Andrew who has his eye in for the creeping growth habit of this grass. Andrew also located Great Brome (Anisantha diandra) with spikelets longer than your little finger. Then there was the white-flowered form of Hedgerow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum f. albiflorum). Patches of sprawling Climbing Corydalis (Ceratocapnos claviculata) were found in the darker woodland understorey. We also saw several Oak trees (Quercus robur) with wilted leaves and speculated that these were due to water-shortage, rather than disease, but their appearance remained a puzzle. Both Red & Black Currants (Ribes rubrum and R. nigrum), growing well within the woodland but close to fringing gardens, suggested escapes, at least for the Black Currant, which is easily known by its smell.

Italian Toadflax (Cymbalaria pallida) with larger flowers and hairier than the commoner C. muralis, was seen and yes, it hails from Italy. Six-rowed Barley (Hordeum vulgare) was spotted by Jesse by a wall-bottom, of which Stace says: “…a barley now rarely cultivated and a rare relic in waste places”. Nearby was a plant of cultivated Oat (Avena sativa), distinguished from the wild Oat (A. fatua) by the spikelets remaining intact at maturity (and hence harvestable). Sorbaria (Sorbaria sorbifolia) was found as expected by Rita and Anthony, a garden escape that is tricky to run down and identify.

Two other promised plants, Greater Pond-sedge (Carex riparia) (native), and Rock Crane’s Bill (Geranium macrorrhizum) (from Southern Europe), were also found. Cut-leaved Crane’s Bill (Geranium dissectum) and Small-flowered Crane’s-bill (Geranium pusillum) were also recorded, both natives.

We were able to recognize the male and female flowers of White Campion (Silene latifolia), and, as Red Campion (Silene dioica) grew nearby, putative hybrids with pink flowers were recorded. Another wall-side weed, flowering away in June was Winter-cress (Barbarea vulgaris). Both Dog-rose (Rosa canina) and Field Rose (Rosa arvensis) were seen, the latter a weakly sprawling shrub with the styles united into a column which is persistent atop the ripe hip. Narrow-leaved Ragwort (Senecio inaequidens), a South African plant, spreading in this country, was spotted by the roadside.

Field penny-cress (Thlaspi arvense), an ‘archeophyte-colonist’ according to Stace, was seen growing weedily on waste-ground. Near the end of the walk, at the edge of a much-used sports-field, we were shown Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) – a western North American plant well-naturalised here; the flower is a beautiful magenta colour but it is the colour of the later fruit (not at all a true berry but a cluster of tiny drupes) that gives it its common name. Yellow-flowered Common Fiddleneck (Amsinckia micrantha), a hispid member of the Forget-me-not family, is also an in-comer from North America, as is the non-climbing shrub Californian Honeysuckle (Lonicera involucrate), that was seen early on in the woodland.

At the end of our tour, we were very kindly invited in for refreshments by Rita and Anthony, though, due to the late hour – we had really taken our time to enjoy a thorough session of botanising - I think members dispersed happily homeward.

Text and photographs by Graham H