In 2015, I had a slipped disc that constrained me to gentle, flat walks. There aren’t many of those on the edge of Dartmoor where I live, so I got to know a one-mile stretch of lane very well, from Moorhaven, OS grid reference SX 66967 57281, to the top of Green Lane, SX 67880 58059. The lane is bounded by traditional Devon hedges formed of banks of earth supporting trees including beech and oak, shrubs like hawthorn and hazel, and a rich array of grasses and flowers. This blog is my attempt to record this wealth of flowers, week by week as they come out. I am not a botanist so would be grateful for corrections to my flower identifications.
More information about Devon hedges from Devon County Council and the Devon Hedge Group
Books for flower identification:
Harrap’s Wild Flowers – a photographic guide with useful distribution maps
Oxford Book of Wild Flowers pocket edition – helpfully organised by colour and fits in pocket, but no longer in print
Blamey, Fitter and Fitter: Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland – good distribution maps and drawings, with useful identification keys that require minimal botanical knowledge
Rose: The Wild Flower Key – authoritative botanical key with illustrated glossary explaining the difference between pedicel and peduncle, for example.
A new flora of Devon maps all vascular plants across the county. Incredible.
For inspiration: John Lewis-Stempel: Meadowland
This British lichens website has an amazing collection of photos that gives me hope one day that I could identify some lichens.
Moorhaven to Green Lane 