Dwarf Mouse-ear

Our second day of monitoring was quite tiring thanks to the warm sunny conditions and rather strong breeze. Our brownfield site supports a lot of short vegetation with a high frequency of ephemeral species which germinate in autumn, bloom in spring and then survive the parched conditions of summer as seeds. Many of these plants are very tiny - I recorded 15 one metre squared quadrats which collectively supported over 90 species, many of which were less than half a centimetre tall. Back breaking work - not to mention hard on the knees!

Just as we were about to leave the site I spotted a plant that I'd never seen before, even though I've been visiting the site at this time of year for fifteen years. My first hunch was correct - it was Dwarf Mouse-ear, a very local species that's never previously been recorded from the vice-county. There were about twenty plant over a stretch of bank about 4m in length. If it hadn't been in full bloom it would have been impossible to see, particularly as there's another species present which has rather similar leaves and bracts. Serendipity plays a huge part in finding these sorts of rarities!