Bleached

Although I was fairly tired after yesterday, I was up and out early, helping to lead a joint South Lincs Flora Group and Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union botanical meeting to Wilsford, as part of the Wilsford Wild Weekend.

In the morning we visited Duke's Covert NR and Copper Hill protected road verge. Both were looking extremely droughted, though some deep-rooted species were still looking good, including Chalk Knapweed, Field Scabious, Small Scabious and Stemless Thistle. We were able to collect herbarium specimens of the last two for the LoveLincsPlants legacy project - nothing else was in a fit state! Someone suggested I ought to write a book on how to identify plants from small, brown fragments - something I've done a lot of in the last few weeks!

While we were recording I spotted this very pale Chalk Knapweed, one of several present. The knapweed in our garden had shown a similar colouration after the very high temperatures on Tuesday. The pink colour of flowers is a consequence of the presence of reddish pigments called anthocyanins. A brief bit of internet research confirmed that these compounds break down at temperatures of above 48C - plants in sheltered, unshaded locations would have been subject to this sort of temperature and so this bleaching is a direct result of the heat. The plants in our garden have now thankfully all returned to their normal pinkish-mauve colour.

In the afternoon we recorded around the recreation ground behind the village hall, which is being partly re-wilded. We also visited a small quarry owned by the parish which is gradually being restored to limestone grassland. Both areas were surprisingly diverse, with populations of several quality indicator species such as Quaking Grass and Meadow Barley. By 3 p.m. it was feeling very hot and steamy, so we decided to call it a day. I briefly toyed with visiting another site on the way home but decided I was too hot and tired!