
![]() Bog myrtle is abundant at Foulshaw Moss, fringing the board walk and on the peat bog. In late July its fruit shows as a greenish nut. I searched for the plant at Meathop Moss and found none. But the flora of the peat bog at Meathop is superb. First impressions are of Bog asphodel. And White-beak sedge, Rhynchospora alba, mingles with Cross-leaved heath in a delightful show. Cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix, is often found in peat bog. Pink flowers fade to an attractive orange and dead stems linger long. Kestrel are calling. A lizard basks in the sun on the board-walk. And dragonflies flit about and sometimes settle. On my recent visit I studied cranberries growing in sphagnum moss, moss of green, gold and wine-red. Long leaf-stems of cranberry trail over the sphagnum and there's crowberry, Empetrum nigrum- I cannot find black berries. I love the cranberry aesthetic, the ripening berries and hints of deep red on stem and leaf. The berries rest on a bed of colourful sphagnum and there's lurking sundew, insectivorous blood-red sundew. The plant's structure shows best where it appears on mud rather than deep in sphagnum. There are greenish-white buds and white sundew flowers, white is tricky to photograph and they're tiny flowers. When I was here four days ago I looked for Bog rosemary. Andromeda polifolia, a dwarf evergreen shrub. I only found the plant when I edited images of the day. This time, I search and find the plant is everywhere, sometimes with two or three white or pale pink bell-shaped flowers. Leaves are linear, like the leaves of Salvia rosmarinus, the Mediterranean shrub familiar as a culinary herb Where cranberries over-spread sphagnum on the peat bog there are often a few plants of Bog rosemary. I've found it flowering in late July at Roudsea raised mire, and at Foulshaw Moss on 8 April 2019.
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