Coatham Dunes
The link to the flower map for Coatham Dunes can be found below.
An afternoon at Coatham Dunes 21st June
Posted on 21st June 2015 by Martin Allen
Rather windy and chilly for mid-summers day but fortunately the occasional black cloud scurrying across the sky did not rain on us.
We started by looking at some yellow-flowered plants in the Brassica family growing on the waste areas at the edge of the caravan park; Perennial Wall-rocket, a well-established alien in the area turned up later in the dunes as did the tiny Biting Stonecrop a succulent-leaved native that can grow in dry bare areas. Walking along the path by the side of the caravan park we saw the flower spikes of Great Lettuce, a surprisingly spiny relative of the garden lettuce and then Horse-radish, a young Apple tree and a large patch of Spearmint of which the latter three were possibly there as garden escapes or in the case of the apple tree, a discarded apple core from a visitor.
Walking along the edge of the golf-course we stopped at the pond to see the large buttercup like flowers of Greater Spearwort a rare pond plant in our area and we were to see its more common and smaller relative, Lesser Spearwort, later on. Some turfy areas between the dunes and the golfing greens yielded Quaking-grass, the semi-parasitic Yellow-rattle, Salad Burnet and a few plants of pink Sainfoin. The blue-green leaved Lesser Meadow-rue was spotted first in bud and then in full (and possibly slightly underwhelming…put it this way, everyone was distracted by a baby toad at the time I pointed out the flower and I’m not at all bitter about it just because I rather like the flowers on Lesser Meadow-rue and you could see a toad just about anywhere, right? I digress…) flower.
Onto the dune slacks where in the lower damper ground many Northern Marsh-orchids could be found.
The locally rare Few-flowered Spike-rush was growing well around the well-trodden path and the tiny pink-flowered Sea Milkwort carpeted a small area nearby.
From the dune slacks we went up onto the dune tops through the Marram grass and on towards the sea where we found large sheets of Kidney-vetch in full flower coating the dunes and looking stunning plus being much frequented by bees. Also here was the nationally rare Rush-leaved Fescue in flower and a white-flowered Common Restharrow, which was a pleasant surprise from the usual pinkish purple.
And so to the beach where we saw the establishing seedlings of a very grey-leaved Goosefoot along the front of the dunes and then walked back along the dune tops admiring the view and noting how clearly the different plant species grew together, grouped in zones depending on distance from the sea and relating to how old the sand dunes where. A brief stop to admire a couple of Bee Orchids and then back through Marram grass dotted with Parsley – another garden escape which has established itself happily in the dunes
Coatham – Late afternoon on the 19th of July
Posted on 20th July 2015 by Martin Allen
Cloudy, clearing later, but so windy we all wore coats and I had to put a different hat on.
This was a walk that took a little longer than advertised (well, erm…nearly twice as long) because when I was checking the site the previous day I saw a fabulous flower spectacle that I unilaterally decided everyone who came on the walk shouldn’t miss and it was a bit further away from the Majuba Road car park (where we started) than perhaps was sensible to aim for.
Anyway, we started walking into the dunes with the wind whipping up sand around us making us feel like extras from Lawrence of Arabia (although perhaps set somewhere slightly colder) to look at the two main grasses that hold the sand dunes together, Marram grass with its leaves rolled up to conserve water and Lyme-grass with wide waxy glaucous-blue leaves.
A bit further on we saw Rush-leaved Fescue – a nationally rare grass which needs just the right sort of sand to grow in and we have quite a lot here at Coatham and South Gare.
The sand can shift about a bit in the wind and an exposed large soil bund demonstrated that the dunes next to the caravan park weren’t always there as did a few piles of concrete exposed by shifting sands spotted later. Early maps show the area where we were walking to be flat sand and further inland to be rabbit warrens (yes…Warrenby!).
And so up over the dune systems looking at those dune plants in flower like Common Restharrow and yellow flowering Oxford Ragwort, Common Ragwort, and Cat’s-ear – which had strange swollen stems (galls). The dunes here at Coatham are known for the garden and agricultural escapes that have colonized like Horse-radish and Garden Parsley – the latter showing clearly as scattered yellow flowers throughout the Marram grass -and Alfalfa or Lucerne in many colours from pale blue through to the deepest purple.
Then we paused to smell Lady’s Bedstraw growing near some Yellow-rattle. And on through the dunes, past a few Pyramidal Orchids now well into their flowering period and looking more oval than pyramidal.
And on up over where the pipeline was put under the dunes and through the wire fences placed to cordon off the area whilst it revegetated. And on until I stopped point out an unusual white-flowered form of Common Centaury when I asked everyone to look behind me and there they saw about a hundred spikes of Marsh Fragrant-orchid looking very elegant and indeed smelling amazing.
After much photography we were off up and round into a dune slack were we saw more of the Marsh Fragrant-orchid growing near some large Northern Marsh-orchids (of which there are many in the area) just coming to the end of their flowering.
We walked back through the dune slacks amongst the fresh smell of Water Mint, spotted Parsley Water-dropwort just starting to flower and admired the rich red-ish flowers of the grass Creeping Bent waving on mass in the wind.
The walk back was enlivened with some lovely blue-flowered spikes of Chicory, delicate looking White Melilot and its golden-flowered relative Tall Melilot.