Shepherd's-needle

Alex and I had our first day of fieldwork in Cambridgeshire, which went well once we'd worked out how to get there - the A14 upgrade has resulted in changes to the junctions which weren't on my SatNav. At one point we were heading towards Ipswich - quite the wrong direction.

The area we were surveying was a generally unremarkable piece of countryside, with a mix of large arable fields, elm-rich hedgerows and a few tiny scraps of secondary woodland and permanent grassland. However, there were a few highlights. I don't think I've ever seen so much Crosswort before locally. This hedgerow and grassland species has shown declines over much of southern Britain, and is now considered Near Threatened in England.

But the highlight of the day was the discovery of two plants of a rather unassuming looking member of the Carrot family. Shepherd's-needle is an arable weed of clay-rich soils, which is named for the long, thin fruit which have not yet developed. It was once fairly abundant in the UK, but has been badly affected by modern agricultural practices and is now restricted to south-east England, with a stronghold in Suffolk. The decline has been so great that it's now classified as Critically Endangered in the UK and Endangered in England. I last saw it in the UK in 2012 - it remains frequent in the Mediterranean and I photographed it in both Cyprus and Malta.

In the evening I picked Chris up from the station. His session of teaching at Leeds University had gone well, though I think he was glad to be home!