The Railway Bramble

As it was really quite a lovely morning, I decided to visit the Wildlife Trust reserve at Stanground Wash to photograph their restored and new ditches, which I last did in April. I was also hoping to find some grassland fungi to photograph, but I think it's just been too dry - there were a few species, including a beautiful specimen of a Grassland Puffball, but only one very blackened Blackening Waxcap.

I spent some time examining the brambles - once you know the characters to look for it's amazing how many different species there are - not that I can name most of them yet! But this is one of the few that I can now recognise - Variable-leaved Bramble Rubus tuberculatus - also known as the Railway Bramble, because of its penchant for railway embankments. It's a bit of a menace, sending out many, viciously spiky low runners that wrap themselves round your ankles. And it doesn't even have delicious fruit - many of the drupelets never develop!