Arable weeds

Rain in the morning stopped us from getting on with any fieldwork, but by lunchtime the weather had improved so Pete and I decided to see if we could find an old record of corn buttercup in south Lincolnshire. The skies were grey and threatening when we first arrived, but the sun came out and for much of our walk it was almost hot - at least Gemma thought so!

We followed some footpaths between Holywell and Little Bytham, and were surprised to find little corners of limestone grassland, purple with wild thyme as well as sizeable populations of three very rare arable weeds: shepherd's needle, stinking chamomile and night-flowering catchfly. There were several magnificent poppy fields too - the recent rain has prevented farmers from spraying with herbicide, giving some wonderful displays of these cheerful and charismatic flowers.

But we never did find the corn buttercup!