Long-stalked Cranesbill, Geranium columbinum 9th June 2023 The Ghyll flora in June is a delight. Frothy white cow-parsley spills down the bank to meet white ox-eye daisies and red campion which flowered in late May. Now in fine and dry June weather plants grow tall and sorrel is seeding and wafts in the breeze. White campion appears and achillea ptarmica or yarrow. Long-stalked cranesbill, Geranium columbine, is flicked in and out of camera shot and long green buds open to a starry green calyx with petals in purple-pink. Long-stalked cranesbill is a less familiar geranium and I hope it spreads beyond the small patch showing this year.
It’s pleasing to see a scatter of yellow rattle. Left to set- seed, these plants could ensure biodiversity as they are saprophytes that take nutrients by tapping into the roots of grasses which weakens them, allowing a range of flowers to flourish. There are various grasses in the mix too, with red and white clover. Water has carved-out a steep-sided ghyll in the limestone and flows beneath the surface. Sunlight probes down the slopes so the flowers are brightly lit at certain times of day and then cast into shadow.
In winter, all that showed were the leaves of clover and plantains so what now appears is promising. On the eastern slope a few young crab apple have been planted and it would be good to see the new floral-mix planted about these young trees. At the moment there’s a floral meadow around the SUDS attenuation basin and little beyond grasses and a clump of comfrey on the other slopes.
The introduced flowers are different from the previous flora in The Ghyll. It’s a zone where garden flowers, like the daffodils planted here, mingle with wild flowers. It looks lovely so I hope all flourishes and thrives. This location is just off the Brigsteer Road with its mature trees festooned in ivy where I hear nuthatch and great-spotted woodpecker this morning.
The introduced flowers are different from the previous flora in The Ghyll. It’s a zone where garden flowers, like the daffodils planted here, mingle with wild flowers. It looks lovely so I hope all flourishes and thrives. This location is just off the Brigsteer Road with its mature trees festooned in ivy where I hear nuthatch and great-spotted woodpecker this morning.
I’m hoping Highways do not come to mow the fringes of the new planting where yellow rattle flowers. This has happened in the past and too-early a mowing prevents the plants from setting seed. There’s no need to mow because the new path is wide and bordered with a strip of mud now cracked in the drought. Some of us who walk this way have noticed that something is trickling down the drainage channel- which puzzles us as it has not rained for at least three weeks!
There are flower-buds yet to open so I'm looking to see what else appears. Then come the seed-heads which will be interesting. Cranesbills are named for the shape of their fruits, long and beaky, like a crane's bill.
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