A butterfly bank: second visit

About a month ago I posted some pictures of a beautiful magnesian limestone embankment along an old disused railway line at Trimdon near Durham city. This weekend we went back for another look and the flora was even better.

The viper's bugloss, which was only rosettes of leaves on our last visit, had now produced tall spires of flowers.

At the moment, this is just about the most flowery spot I know, with ....

...... bladder campion .......

...growing here with viper's bugloss ....

..... intensely fragrant burnet rose ......

..... eyebright, a plant that's partially parasitic on the roots of other plants....

..... greater knapweed .........

....... rock-rose .....

... and common spotted orchids that were too many to count, with numerous variations: this is an albino form.

Twayblade orchids, that are well hidden amongst the background vegetation..........

... and drifts of viper's bugloss, which bees can't resist.

Wild strawberries ..........

....... and wild thyme.

Magnesian limestone flora at its best!

Warkworth Sand Dune Flora

The sand dune system at Warkworth hosts a fine flora in early summer. The top picture shows biting stonecrop Sedum acre, whose succulent leaves allow it to thrive on bare sand in drought conditions. Below this is wild thyme Thymus serpyllum, which releases a wonderful herbal fragrance on hot days and hums with bumblebees visiting it flowers. The next flower down is viper’s bugloss Echium vulgare, whose bristly leaves prevent rabbits from grazing it. This too is a magnet for bees and makes an excellent plant for a bee-friendly wildlife garden. It’s a biennial, producing a rosette of leaves in its first year and a flower spike in the second. The seeds persist for a long time in the soil – I introduced some into my garden about 20 years ago and occasional seeds still germinate, without me ever having sown it again. Behind the dunes at Warkworth there’s a remarkable freshwater swamp, filled with the largest population of yellow flag Iris pseudacorus that I’ve ever seen – it must cover the best part of an acre and just now there are hundreds of plants in full bloom.