Dr M’s MSc New Year Plant Hunt (borrowed from the idea by BSBI) took place on Tuesday 14th January 2014.
Three groups of MSc students walked the University of Reading Whiteknights campus for 1 hour each in the chilly sunshine collecting any plant in flower and these were taken back to the lab and identified. Dr M also took the opportunity to take his own separate walk.
Only native and naturalised (and not planted) species were included and only plants with at least one intact flower.
The individual group scores were 10, 21, 22 and 24 species.
Several species were found by more than one of the groups, so in total there were 38 different species recorded in flower, these are listed below beneath photos of 18 of them taken in the lab ID session.
This does not reach the total of 66 found by the winning group in the BSBI Plant Hunt, but it is pretty good total for a University campus, no wonder it is a prize winning campus!
The thirty-eight species were from seventeen different families, the most speciose being (no surprise) Asteraceae with fourteen species, followed, at a distance, by Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae and Geraniaceae each with three species.
There are no real Spring flowering species on the list and so no indication of an early Spring.
Rather, the mild winter weather has allowed a number of species to hang on in flower when in a more normal year the frost would have put paid to them by now!
Click on the images for more detail!
Here is the full list:
| 1 | Amaranthaceae | Chenopodium album | Fat Hen |
| 2 | Apiaceae | Daucus carota | Wild Carrot |
| 3 | Apocynaceae | Vinca major | Greater Periwinkle |
| 4 | Asteraceae | Lapsana communis | Nipplewort |
| 5 | Asteraceae | Tanacetum parthenium | Feverfew |
| 6 | Asteraceae | Sonchus oleraceus | Smooth Sow-Thistle |
| 7 | Asteraceae | Achillea millefolium | Yarrow |
| 8 | Asteraceae | Bellis perennis | Daisy |
| 9 | Asteraceae | Centaurea nigra | Black Knapweed |
| 10 | Asteraceae | Conyza canadensis | Canadian Fleabane |
| 11 | Asteraceae | Crepis capillaris | Smooth Hark’s-beard |
| 12 | Asteraceae | Hypochaeris radicata | Cat’s-ear |
| 13 | Asteraceae | Senecio jacobaea | Ragwort |
| 14 | Asteraceae | Senecio vulgaris | Groundsel |
| 15 | Asteraceae | Taraxacum officinalis agg. | Dandelion |
| 16 | Asteraceae | Tragopogon pratensis | Goat’s-beard |
| 17 | Asteraceae | Tripleurospermum inodorum | Scentless Mayweed |
| 18 | Betulaceae | Corylus avellana | Hazel |
| 19 | Brassicaceae | Arabidopsis thaliana | Thale Cress |
| 20 | Brassicaceae | Capsella bursa-pastoris | Shepherd’s Purse |
| 21 | Brassicaceae | Cardamine hirsuta | Hairy Bitter-cress |
| 22 | Caryophyllaceae | Cerastium glomeratum | Sticky Mouse-ear |
| 23 | Caryophyllaceae | Silene dioica | Red Campion |
| 24 | Caryophyllaceae | Stellaria media | Common Chickweed |
| 25 | Dipsacaceae | Knautia arvensis | Field Scabious |
| 26 | Euphorbiaceae | Euphorbia peplus | Petty Spurge |
| 27 | Fabaceae | Medicago lupulina | Black Medick |
| 28 | Fabaceae | Trifolium pratense | Red Clover |
| 29 | Geraniaceae | Erodium cicutarium | Common Stork’s-bill |
| 30 | Geraniaceae | Geranium molle | Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill |
| 31 | Geraniaceae | Geranium pusillum | Small-flowered Crane’s-bill |
| 32 | Lamiaceae | Lamium purpureum | Red Dead-nettle |
| 33 | Poaceae | Lolium perenne | Perennial Rye-grass |
| 34 | Poaceae | Poa annua | Annual Meadow-grass |
| 35 | Ranunculaceae | Ranunculus bulbosus | Bulbous Buttercup |
| 36 | Rosaceae | Geum urbanum | Wood Avens |
| 37 | Urticaceae | Urtica urens | Small Nettle |
| 38 | Veronicaceae | Veronica persica | Field Speedwell |
January 16, 2014
