Warwickshire Flora Group SPRING and SUMMER FIELD MEETINGS 2015 All botanical meetings will start at 10 a.m. and finish at about 3.30 p.m. or when everybody has had enough. Please bring a packed lunch and drinks. Walking will be limited to a couple of miles. You do not need to be member of the BSBI or anything else to come along. You can be a beginner or an expert, and just interested in identifying and finding plants. Please bring field guides and a lens if you have one. For more information ring us on 01827-712455 or e mail [email protected]. Sunday 26 April BANNAM’S WOOD Bannam’s Wood SSSI is now part of the Heart of England Forest Project that was started by magazine publisher and tree planter Felix Dennis. (It is worth looking him up on Wikipedia!) The easiest route is to take the A4189 westwards from Henley-in-Arden, and turn left into the narrow lane just past Oldberrow Church. Carry on across the next crossroads. Pass Church Farm on your left and you will soon see the wood on your left. Please park just before the right-hand bend (SP111639). There are only a few parking spaces here, so please take care not to block any nearby entrances if you have to park a distance away. Target species: Green Hellebore, Wood Speedwell, Bird’s-nest Orchid. More information on is available on www.heartofenglandforest.com Friday 8 May LONDON ROAD CEMETERY, COVENTRY We quickly surveyed the north end in January this year, and immediately thought it would be an excellent site for the WFG. The cemetery is in two different tetrads and we will start with the south end before lunch as it is in a tetrad that presently has virtually no modern records. It is a place with an impressive history and hosts an important collection of mature trees. We will park in the car parking spaces just outside the north gate of the Cemetery (SP340783). This is only safely accessible from the northbound side of London Road, Coventry. Driving north, ignore the south entrance, go under the railway bridge and take the first road on your left (Deasy Road), just before the traffic lights, turn left at the roundabout into Quarryfield Lane and quickly left again to find the cemetery. If there are no parking spaces, please park courteously on the drive inside the gate. For a tree list see Warwickshire Tree Catalogue No. 5 Sites on www.stevenfalk.co.uk and for the history of the cemetery try www.lrcemetery.co.uk. Let’s hope they haven’t been too active with the mowers. Thursday 4 June NEWTON RAILWAY CUTTING, RUGBY Please park at the Picnic Site on Newton Lane, north of Newton village (SP53037857). We will spend the morning looking at the limestone grassland in the area to the north of the car park going towards the M6 and then move southwards after lunch. There are slopes and some rough ground but there will be plenty of other surveying to do if this is a problem. In the afternoon we will target an adjacent BSBI chosen random 1km square. Monday 15 June BROWNSOVER, RUGBY This is probably one of the most varied sites in the county. It includes the River Avon, a stretch of canal, a wet meadow (Humpty Dumpty fields), wet woodland and a length of disused railway line. There is also a housing estate next to it, where there will be an opportunity to lengthen our species list if we have time. Find the junction of Crow Thorns and the south end of Staveley Way on the Brownsover Estate and park on the grass verge between the junction and the disused railway line on the south side of Staveley Way (SP51827681). Phil Parr has provided maps of previous surveys that need updating. Target species: Marsh Ragwort, River Water-dropwort, Common Meadow-rue, Common Restharrow, Field Scabious. Monday 22 June BURTON DASSETT HILLS COUNTRY PARK Travelling south on the B4100, the Leamington- Banbury Road, pass Gaydon and Temple Herdwyke and take the lane to Little Dassett and Northend on your left just before the BAD Kineton entrance. Follow the signs to the Country Park. (Postcode CV47 2AB). When you have driven up the hill you will see a noticeboard. Turn to the left here and park about 50 metres further on in one of the parking areas. We visited this area of limestone grassland in early May last year and rediscovered many plants that had not been seen for 30 years or more and would like to do the same in the summer. There is a car parking fee, and toilets. Target species: Clustered Bellflower, Harebell, Knotted Hedge-parsley, Spring Sedge, Crested Hair Grass Sunday 28 June PEAK DISTRICT with Brian Laney After last year’s successful, but wet, out of county trip to the Devil’s Dyke, we will be visiting the Peak District. We are planning to meet at the car park at Monsal Head (SK18457147) NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE, where there is probably a car park charge. Please bring lunch. More details will follow later. Sunday 5 July RYTON WOOD NATURE RESERVE We will park in the Wildlife Trust car park, not at the Ryton Pools car park, which is down a track off of the A423 Oxford Road on the right about 1/3 mile travelling south of the roundabout with the A445. (SP348727). We aim to survey the less visited far south end of the wood from where Common Cow-wheat and possible Green Figwort were reported last year. This is also prime sedge hunting time and we hope to find a rich a flora here like the one we found in Wappenbury Wood a few years ago. See www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/ryton-wood for more information and don’t forget your butterfly books. Possible sites for the autumn will include: Alvecote Wood Winterbourne Gardens Tithe Farm, Marton Wormleighton Village Stratford-upon –Avon Magpie Lodge Farm and Clifton Brook Middleton Lakes Kingsbury Water Park Dates will be finalized in June.