Which elm? Wych Elm?

A beautiful spring morning for a walk round Barnack. I started off at Barnack Hills and Holes NNR where there were sleepy sheep, dozing in the sun and banks of Hairy Violet, while overhead Ravens and Red Kites courted and squabbled. 

I headed out along a footpath where I was serenaded by multiple Skylarks and then walked back to the village along country lanes studded with starry yellow Lesser Celandines and  purple violets which looked like the hybrid between Hairy and Sweet Violet. More Skylark song overhead was accompanied by the chattering of groups of Yellowhammers. Close to the village, steep banks were clothed with Sweet Violets - white, lilac and purple - enlivened by the tiny intense blue flowers of Early Forget-me-not.

The churchyard was my next stop, and having walked past beautiful stone walls rich with Limestone Polypody, and pavement edges full of Common Whitlow-grass and Rue-leaved Saxifrage, I found even more Sweet Violets, which were providing a valuable source of nectar for the first male Hairy-footed Flower Bees of the year - masses of them!

I then headed out of the village along another footpath, past a small woodland whose ground flora was dominated by invasive alien species including the garden form of Yellow Archangel and Greater Periwinkle. I found this elm close to the Cricket Club, but as I've only ever seen it in spring, before the leaves have appeared, I'm not sure which elm it is. It's most likely to be either a Wych Elm or a Huntingdon Elm - I must remember to go back in summer to check!