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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 36
Plant recording in 1999 Following the retirement of Enid Hyde last year, and Francis Simpson this year, I am now left in sole charge of botanical recording in the county both for SNS and for the Botanical Society of the British Isles. Firstly, I must thank my predecessors for the many years of hard work they have put into recording the flora of Suffolk. Francis Simpson has served the Society as Botanical Recorder for over 60 years. This is a daunting task with such a large county as Suffolk and I would welcome help from anyone interested in sharing the work. Much of the recording effort in 1999 went into survey work for the forthcoming B.S.B.I. Atlas 2000 Project. Many thousands of new records were made and overall the coverage of the county at 10-km level was greatly improved by the end of the season. We were able to contribute over a quarter of a million records to the Atlas project with the vast majority of the records coming from the most recent date-class. I am most grateful to all those who took part in the recording work, particularly the team from Norfolk who travelled a long way to cover some very arable and unrewarding areas. This type of ‘square-bashing’ survey work does not tend to produce very many rarities, but there were some exciting finds including Wood Barley, Hordelymus europaeus found by Bob Ellis et al. in August at Homersfield and Flat Sedge, Blysmus compressus found by Toby Abrehart at South Cove. Toby managed to find over 500 species in his home square at Wrentham (TM48V) and there are now several other tetrads in the county with over 400 species. Francis Lupton found Bulbous Meadow-grass Poa bulbosa (conf. A. Copping) at Icklingham by the B1112. This is the first record for v.c. 26, West Suffolk. Yvonne Leonard found another new site for Red-tipped Cudweed, Filago lutescens in Breckland at Mildenhall Woods. Chris Preston and Mark Gurney refound Oxlips, Primula elatior in Cavenham and Tuddenham at old sites last recorded in the 1950s. Jon Clitten found Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum on stabilised shingle at Dingle Marshes. Tony Butcher found Guernsey Fleabane, Conyza sumatrensis in Sudbury (det. Eric Clement) which was the first record for West Suffolk and it has now (2000) been found in Ipswich, Felixstowe and Bury St Edmunds as well. This South American species is very similar to Canadian Fleabane, C. canadensis, but is more grey-green in appearance with hairy phyllaries and many small, hooked hairs along the edges of the leaves. It is now quite common in parts of London and will no doubt spread rapidly to other parts of Suffolk Tony also found a new site for Spreading Hedge Parsley, Torilis arvensis on a verge in the Chilton Industrial Estate at Sudbury. Ron Hartley and the Sudbury Flora Group found Great Dodder, Cuscuta europaea at its well-known site at Brent Eleigh and were surprised to find it parasitising Woody Nightshade as well as the usual host of nettles (Plate 12). Martin Sanford SBRC, Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 36 (2000)
Ruggles Plate 12: Great Dodder, Cuscuta europaea L. parasitising Woody Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara L. at Brent Eleigh, August 1999 (p. 108).