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