Longhorns

Today I led a SLFG field meeting to Grimsthorpe Park which proved to be more challenging than expected, involving negotiations to open locked park gates (twice) and the need to get over or under unexpected electric and wooden fences (and sometimes both!) which were in place to allow the parkland to be grazed by a very gorgeous group of Long-horned cattle, with a magnificent bull, cows and calves. Our last fence was particularly challenging and required a team effort to get everyone safely over - a great bonding exercise!

Much of the area had either been mown or recently grazed which made botanical recording interesting, but nevertheless we manged to find a total of 146 taxa, including Trailing Tormentil which is new for the site and a rare species in SOuth Lincolnshire. Other species of note included Sweet-briar, Sneezewort, Pepper-saxifrage, Corn Mint and Skullcap.

The dried-up pond where the latter was recorded was also the location of a mystery sedge forming significant tussocks. Superficially it looked like Tufted-sedge but close examination of the one remaining seed-head, together with an examination of the location of stomata on the leaves, confirmed its identity as the tussock form of Common Sedge.

An area of disturbed ground around a farm building added a late flush of diversity including a small stand of Maple-leaved Goosefoot. This generally southern species rarely forms large populations, but is most frequent in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and South Lincolnshire, particularly from Stamford to Sleaford, usually found on arable margins or disturbed ground.