Growing in a hole.

Mrs.K. dropped me at the entrance to our National Nature Reserve and picked me up half an hour later after she had done some work in the wild flower meadow.

The NNR has a special type of limestone pavement with large areas of flat, smooth bare limestone. Across this surface are many grykes, i.e. holes in the limestone created when slightly acidic rain penetrates cracks and causes erosion over long eons of time.

Some soil decaying plant matter accumulates in the bottom of these grykes and provides a sheltered area for plants to grow.

In fact dark red helleborines grow in some of them but I did not find those this morning.

The photo shows one plant which does enjoy these conditions. It is Hart's Tongue Fern. Asplenium scolopendrium.