Urban Botanising

I went to a Botany field meeting with my local Natural History Society today, to a site quite close to the city centre. To give you an idea what it was like, there was an industrial estate, an old gasometer, a burnt out ski village, a go-kart track, a former landfill site and many derelict buildings. We were few in number but we saw an amazing variety of plants, including Wild Parsnip, which is locally rare, Figwort, and one I'd never heard of called Yellow-wort. We found Centaury, Ling, Male and Lady Fern, Broom, Teasel, St John's Wort, Catchfly, Garlic Mustard, Evening Primrose, Wormwood, Dog-rose, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Tufted Vetch, Melilot, Black Medick, Great Willowherb, Hemlock, Fool's Parsley, Bindweed, Purple Toadflax, Red Valerian, Goat's Beard, Speedwell, Goldenrod.... and trees - Sessile and Pedunculate Oak, Rowan, Whitebeam, Silver Birch, Hawthorn, Horse Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut, Apple....
There were a few butterflies around too - plenty of gatekeepers which seem to have come out in force in the last week or two.