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Lodge Hill – 11th July 2009

Lodge Hill is an isolated chalk hill situated between Bledlow and Saunderton Lee.  It is not a nature reserve but it is access land and very easily accessed as the Ridgeway Path runs through it.  Four members visited on a dry but cloudy afternoon and explored three areas of the hill, land that had been cultivated but was now reverting to scrubland, a small area surrounded by trees and shrubs, away from the Ridgeway Path, and the much more trodden and rabbit-grazed terrain beside the Ridgeway Path. A very large number of species of plant was noted, with many pyramidal orchids in the first area and both bee and frog orchids in the second area.  The show of bloom was excellent throughout with greater knapweed and lady’s bedstraw providing plenty of colour.  Plants in one colony of lady’s bedstraw had cream, rather than the usual yellow blooms. A few very fine specimens of clustered bellflower were noted and, in areas where rabbits had disturbed the soil, wild candytuft.  Many butterflies were on the wing, none of them great rarities but enough of them to give great pleasure.  New second-generation painted ladies were particularly beautiful.  The area merits further visits.

article by Chris Bucke

Plants

White Campion  Silene latifolia
Common Rock-rose  Helianthemum nummularium
White Bryony  Bryonia dioica
Wild Candytuft  Iberis amara
Dewberry  Rubus caesius
Wild Strawberry  Fragaria vesca
Agrimony  Agrimonia eupatoria
Salad Burnet  Sanguisorba minor
Wood Avens  Geum urbanum
Hop Trefoil  Trifolium campestre
Black Medick  Medicago lupulina
Fairy Flax  Linum catharticum
Herb-Robert  Geranium robertianum
Rough Chervil  Chaerophyllum temulum
Fool’s Parsley  Aethusa cynapium
Burnet-saxifrage  Pimpinella saxifraga
Hogweed  Heracleum sphondylium
Wild Parsnip  Pastinaca sativa
Wild Carrot  Daucus carota
Yellow-wort  Blackstonia perfoliata
Field Bindweed  Convolvulus arvensis
Wild Thyme  Thymus polytrichus
White Dead-nettle  Lamium album
Wild Basil  Clinopodium vulgare
Basil Thyme  Clinopodium acinos
Wild Marjoram  Origanum vulgare
Hoary Plantain  Plantago media
Dark Mullein  Verbascum thapsus
Common Eyebright  Euphrasia nemorosa
Red Bartsia  Odontites vernus
Harebell  Campanula rotundifolia
Clustered Bellflower  Campanula glomerata
Hedge Bedstraw  Gallium mollugo
Lady’s Bedstraw  Gallium verum
Squinancywort  Asperula cynanchica
Field Scabious  Knautia arvensis
Yarrow  Achillea millefolium
Spear Thistle  Cirsium vulgare
Dwarf Thistle  Cirsium acaule
Nodding Thistle  Carduus nutans
Greater Knapweed  Centaurea scabiosa
Pyramidal Orchid  Anacamptis pyramidalis
Frog Orchid  Coeloglossum viride                  (4 plants at SP791001)
Common Spotted-orchid  Dactylorhiza fuchsia
Bee Orchid  Ophrys apifera

Butterflies

Small Tortoiseshell (3)
Marbled White
Meadow Brown
Gatekeeper
Common Blue