{"id":1480,"date":"2011-08-19T01:53:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T06:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2011-08-24T14:03:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-24T19:03:53","slug":"peppard-common-30-july-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/peppard-common-30-july-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Peppard Common – 30 July 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janet Welsh led a field trip at Peppard and Kingwood Commons on Saturday 30th<\/sup> July. The walk started in welcome shade on Peppard Common. Oak, rowan, holly and birch trees were indicators of the acid soil conditions. In the first sunny clearing, Dwarf Gorse and heather were in flower, while Purple Hairstreaks and Holly Blues were flying round the oak trees and an Essex Skipper was resting on a bramble leaf. Back in the shade, a Hard Shield-fern with leathery leaves was an unusual sighting for South Oxfordshire. The route dropped down to the chalk of the valley bottom, where butterflies included numerous Gatekeepers, plus single specimens of Brimstone, Comma and Peacock. The track then passed through the shady beeches of Littlebottom and Greatbottom Woods, before climbing up to Kingwood Common. Violet and Broad-leaved Helleborine were found on the bank beside the lane at the top. Open clearings on the common had flowering heather, white Heath Milkwort, the delicate yellow Slender St John\u2019s-wort and drifts of blue Harebells. Fibrous strands at the base of a greyish brown fungus helped Gordon Crutchfield to identify it as Tricholomopsis platyphylla. Finally, Martagon Lilies, probably garden escapes, were a surprising sighting towards the end of the walk.<\/p>\n