New to Lincolnshire

The weather was less than perfect for our first joint visit of the year with Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union. We headed to Castle Bytham NR which comprises Lawn Wood, Bottleneck and Jackson's Meadows and a recently acquired area of grassland where the aim is to create more species-rich grassland.

We recorded over 150 species including several new to the reserve: a good population of Wood Melick on the southern boundary of the wood and a single Green-winged Orchid.


Fresh from organising the BSBI Dandelion Weekend in VC32, my personal highlight was the discovery of a good population of Bertha's Dandelion Taraxacum berthae, new to Lincolnshire. This was considered to have a mostly northern and western distribution in the UK, but was added to the VC32 list last weekend, in a similar ridge-and-furrow meadow with much Adder's-tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum and Green-winged Orchid. It's a rather beautiful dandelion with upright pruinose to purplish bracts, a scatter of dark spots on the leaves and dark-purple ligule stripes.