Woofing in the Waveney Valley.

The term for a rare plant hunter is a woofer called because they say Woof when they get up off the ground as most botanists are old and cant get off the ground very well.

This morning Eileen and I explored some roadside verges in the Lower Waveney Valley. the plants were more notable than rare and we really enjoyed our walk.

First up was the Suffolk Wildlife Trust Roadside Reserve at Mettingham, this was flagged up by me when I found hundreds of Pyramidal Orchids Anacamptis pyramidalis L. in 1998.

We found >50 plants that were just starting to flower. But best of all was Sulphur Clover Trifolium ochroleucon Huds. There were several clumps and looked great. (see right)

Also present was Narrow-leaved Bird's foot Trefoil Lotus glaber Mill. and Smooth Tare Vicia tetrasperma.

Our next stop was Barsham to see small colonies of Bladder Campion Silene vulgaris Garke. These were very distincive and easliy seen from a moving car but we stopped to photograph them. We then crossed the road to look at a naturalised Leopard's Bane Doronicum pardalianches. L.

The final stop was to Barsham Drain, here we recorded Pale Persicaria lapathifolia L.

A Painted Lady Cynthia cardui L. and several Small Tortoiseshell's Agalis urticae L.

It was certainly a very good morning out.