Red Currant

It was a rather grey and dank day for my visit to Grimsthorpe Park, to discuss my plans for survey and plant collection for 2019 with the ranger. After poring over maps and lists for a while, we headed out of the office to hunt for the former location of Toothwort, sadly destroyed in a past landscaping scheme.

The rest of the morning was spent recording the flora of an area of plantation woodland known as The Oaks. The range of woody vegetation was rather odd and included the first record for Cornelian Cherry in Lincolnshire, and several bushes of Red Currant, with their rather peculiar tassels of greenish disk-shaped flowers.

The ground flora was richer than expected, with a good scatter of ancient woodland indicator species such as Primrose, Bluebell, Ramsons and Early Dog-violet. Several damp rides supported large populations of what appeared to be Thin-spiked Wood-sedge, a very local species not previously recorded from the park. Part of the area has been cleared to be used for two festivals during the summer - a rather odd way to manage a woodland with significant environmental value.