Large-sepalled Hawthorn

Pete and I spent a very useful couple of hours at a site meeting with Highways England and Keir, discussing the management of an area of very herb-rich grassland that we discovered during our survey of Castor last year. 

While we were chatting I spotted this rather unusual looking hawthorn, with large, very red, barrel-shaped berries. It turned out to be large-sepalled hawthorn, a species native to Europe which has been planted in a number of landscaping schemes and is now hybridising with our own native hawthorn. 

I spent some time explaining to them why widespread planting of non-native species and sub-species is a threat to our native flora  - hopefully the Highways Agency and Keir are going back to look a bit more closely at their specifications and where they source their plant material from. One day the message might eventually permeate through the system ...