Common Whitlowgrass

Pete and I spent yesterday at the Wildlife Trust Ecology Groups Conference, where I gave a talk on my experience of taking part in their Wildlife Photography Project. It was a very worthwhile day, with lost of opportunities to catch up with old friends and fellow conservationists. The only frustration was being stuck inside a hotel on a beautifully sunny day. I didn't take my camera and when we arrived home I was just too tired to photograph anything. So we had a cosy evening catching up with some of the TV we'd missed this week.

This morning the weather was overcast and windy, but despite this we went up to Stamford to do some botanical recording. I was not feeling 100% and in a distracted moment turned south on the A1 instead of north, which made for a rather unexpected detour. Despite our recording tetrad appearing fairly unpromising - largely housing and road verges with the occasional hedge and patch of grassland - we recorded well over 100 species, including this whitlowgrass, which is only about 2cm in height and was growing in snowy swathes on some rather trampled grass verges.

Having returned home we seem to have recorded a number of new species for South Lincolnshire, though all are garden escapes that have hopped over the fence or wall and are now making a break for freedom down the road verges. I wonder if any of them will succeed in establishing wild populations?