Duke of Argyll's Tea-plant

I spent the morning at the LCT Reserves Committe, which was held at Swaddywell because the road to Torpel Manor was closed. It was a useful and lively meeting, but afterwards I felt I needed to stretch my legs, so decided to make a quick visit to Castor Hanglands NNR to visit the Devil's-bit Scabious.

As I parked I was surprised to spot the purple flowers and bright red berries of a sizable Duke of Argyll's Tea-tree, which had clearly been there for some time, but which I'd never noticed before. It's better known to many as the source of Goji berries, a rather popular super-food but is also known as Matrimony Vine in the USA. It originated from the Himalayas and has been widely used as hedging. Birds eat the seeds and disperse it to much more remote locations such as this.

When I arrived at the NNR I was rather shocked to find that the whole of the fen meadow area had already been cut, with no sign of Devil's-bit Scabious or any of the other wetland plants that provide an important nectar and pollen source for late-flying insects.