Fields of Snow

Just about caught up with this blog from last weekend, 29 June, which saw us head south towards Newcastleton and the hills between there and Langholm.

I’m sure most people will have picked up the fact that the weather this year has been, to say the least, strange, and at times somewhat cold, but not so cold as to produce fields of snow at the beginning of the summer! I was thinking. But to me, when I saw the hillsides for the first time, from a distance, they looked almost as though they had a fine coating of snow. For from the distance they were coated with a white covering. It might have been a strange year, but luckily its not been that cold!!

Fields of Snow – 29 June 2013 (Copyright Carol Jones)

On coming closer, the sight slowly changed from sheets of white to distinct blobs of white, which turned out to be the seed heads of Common Cotton-grass. The flowers themselves, are indistinct, occurring very early in the spring, but it is the seed heads that are amazing. For they are covered with long white hairs that make them look like bundles of cotton. This year the sheets of Cotton-grass on the hills between Newcastleton and Langholm are amazing, I don’t think I have ever seen so many heads. There are always lots, but never so many that they form a vision of white from a distance, as though summer had delivered a coating of snow that had drifted gently into the hollows!

Common Cotton-grass – 29 June 2013 (Copyright Carol Jones)

The Wonders of Road Verges

The wonders of road verges still surprise me, even today after many years of looking at plants. On Saturday we were over in Newcastleton area and between the passing showers went wandering along the road that leads to Langholm. Here in a half mile stretch of road, that varied between upland meadow and rank scrubby grassland verge, without any serious hunting, I found over ninety different species of plant. Wow!! Its almost like an artists palette or someone has scattered an catalogue of interesting plants around.

Verge, Newcastleton to Langholm Road – 30 June 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)

As with many sites, the species ranged from the seriously common such as the Daisy and Toad Rush along the road edge. To the nice, such as the Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) and Heath Spotted Orchid (D. maculata) , with its wonderful variations in colour from almost white to the pale pink and all with purple markings. To the unusual and rare in the form of Fragrant Orchids (Gymnadenia conopsea) and Greater Butterfly Orchids (Platanthera chlorantha) that were growing there as bold as brass, within a couple of feet of the tarmacked road surface and totally at risk from passing vehicles or verge cutters. Unlike last week these Greater Butterfly Orchids had been exposed to the extra sunshine of a week and had just about managed to open a couple of flowers to reveal beautiful creamy green tinged blooms. Only a couple though, many of the spikes seen were still tightly shut.

Greater Butterfly Orchid – 30 June 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)