Wednesday 28 July 2010

River flora

Along side the river, the meadows are turning to seed, but in the river itself the plants are just starting to come into life:
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Unfortunately that includes Himalayan Balsam, once again it is growing in swathes along the river bank.  Despite valiant attempts to clear it, the river banks are too steep to get it all. Although it is popular with the bees that have lost the meadow flowers it is unfortunately it is taking over where native vegetation should be growing.
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In the river itself, the arrow head is once again starting grow, something which is fairly abundant on the ock, but according to my recently purchased 'Collins complete guide to British Wild Flowers' is 'locally common in the south, but scarce elsewhere', so perhaps I should treat it with more respect.
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The water crowfoot is starting to bloom, apparently there are 7 different types of crowfoot - a member of the buttercup family and I'm guessing this is river water-crowfoot (as opposed to stream water-crowfoot which is rarer, but has a very similar description):
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Perhaps most interesting is the 'flowering rush', a plant that is on the Oxfordshire endangered plant list - thanks to David for telling me about it.   Described as 'locally common' this is the only one I've seen, despite walking past it several times and never noticed. It's also hard to get a photograph of:
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Of course, with the exception of the himalayan balsam, this flora is good for the fauna that lives on the river:....




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