Fruit of Bog Myrtle, Sweet Gale, Myrica gale 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 But Bog rosemary is a small plant with a pale flower. 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. Roudsea, Foulshaw and Meathop are distinctive in being raised mires.
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