Southey Wood

I'm still not travelling too far, thanks to the sciatica, so today Rosie and I had a walk round Southey Wood. I used to visit this a lot, but haven't been recently, so I was interested to see what I could find. It's a very rich site, with both ancient woodland and unimproved grassland on calcareous and acid soils, and I recorded 176 species in about an hour and a half, just from the paths. Highlights of the visit were:

Lots of Galium odoratum, at several locations

Carex pallescens at a couple of different places on the rides. This is a very occasional species, usually found on damp rides in ancient woodlands locally.

Ornithogalum umbellatum, on a ride edge. I have recorded this before from a different part of the wood. It is considered to be non-native in Northamptonshire, although in both cases at Southey Wood it was growing among semi-natural vegetation with no other apparent introductions.

Sanicula europaea, a local species of dry calcareous woodland, with one extensive patch growing near the car-park.

Aquilegia vulgaris, in the car-park, most likely an introduction but self-seeding and apparently well established.

Other species of note include lots of Astragalus glycyphyllos and locally frequent Oxalis acetosella on the more acid soils. Definitely a site to revisit later in the season!