Aylesbeare Common – 26 July 2011
(by Mike Lock)
About 10 members and friends gathered at Joney’s Cross Car Park on a bright sunny morning for a stroll on Aylesbeare Common as part of ‘Heath Week’. We crossed the road and set off along the tarmac track, noticing as we went how different the vegetation of the verges is from the surrounding heathland. Extra water runs off the tarmac, and the stone brought in to build the road must be either limestone or something equally base-rich, for some normally limestone-loving plants such as Fairy Flax grow beside the road.
This difference between the verge and the heath quickly disappeared as we left the tarmac and followed the sandy track across the heath. All three heathers – Ling, Bell Heather and Cross-leaved Heath, were flowering, although Ling would not be in full flower for another 3-4 weeks. Gorse was in flower, but not the Common Gorse – only the smaller Dwarf Gorse, which fills the gap in July and August when Common Gorse is not flowering and when, according to the old saying, ‘Kissing would be out of season’.
A patch burned 4-6 weeks earlier showed how the vegetation regenerates after fires. Bracken had regrown from its underground rhizomes; Gorse was sprouting from the burned bases (although the regrowth was heavily nibbled by rabbits!) and numerous Gorse seedlings were emerging from the ashes. Both Bristle Bent and Purple Moor-grass were resprouting from their tussock bases.
Butterflies were enjoying the sun; Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns were comon among the grass, and Graylings sunbathed on the paths, their mottled brown undersides ensuring that they became almost invisible when they alighted. Dragonflies were on the wing, including several Black-tailed Skimmers, a nationally scarce species that is, however, common at Aylesbeare.
We moved on down the slope to the boggy valley bottom. Here masses of Sphagnum moss filled the gaps between the plants of Cross-leaved Heath; squeezing a handful of the moss revealed its astonishing water-absorbing capacity. Some of the plants here get over the problems of low nutrient supply by catching and digesting small insects. We saw Round-leaved Sundew, with its red leaves fringed with gland-tipped hairs, and Western Butterwort with its rosettes of shiny leaves with inrolled margins and tiny mauve flowers. Cotton Grass and Yellow Asphodel, the latter just about finishing flowering, were other typical bog plants growing here.
Beyond the pools, at the wood edge, we saw two or three second-brood Holly Blues and had a glimpse of a high-flying Silver-washed Fritillary.