Friday 5th July: Nosterfield Nature Reserve and habitat creation nursery, Ripon, North Yorkshire
Leader: Martin Hammond
Meet at 10:30 at the Nosterfield Quarry visitors’ car park,DL8 2QZ, Grid Ref. SE282804, off the B6267.
Martin writes “At the Lower Ure Conservation Trust’s habitat creation nursery, we mainly grow plants for local habitat creation/restoration projects but also rare plants for conservation projects further afield. Examples of species you should have a chance to examine include Marsh Pea Lathyrus palustris, Marsh Fern Thelypteris palustris, Marsh Sowthistle Sonchus palustris, Tufted Loosestrife Lysimachia thyrsiflora, Fen Pondweed Potamogeton coloratus, Water Germander Teucrium scordium and Greater Water-parsnip Sium latifolium. We also have Rare Spring-sedge Carex ericetorum and Scarce Tufted-sedge C. cespitosa but these are young plants which may not have reached flowering stage yet.
There will also be an opportunity to see the fen creation area next to the nursery, which is around 1.5 hectares of wetland at the edge of a working sand and gravel quarry, modelled on local plant communities. Key species here include Great Fen-sedge Cladium mariscus, Tufted-sedge Carex elata and Blunt-flowered Rush Juncus subnodulosus. There is a possibility we may be able to show you Thistle Broomrape Orobanche reticulata, a short walk from the nursery, but none appeared in 2023, so this can’t be guaranteed.
Access to the main nature reserve will be limited to the permissive footpath which runs between the villages of West Tanfield and Nosterfield, best accessed from the car park on Moor Lane at SE278795. Walking north-east from the car park, the path passes calcareous gravel banks with plants such as Ploughman’s Spikenard Inula conyzae, Wild Basil Clinopodium vulgare, Common Cudweed Filago germanica and Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera. Alternatively/additionally, the nearby Thornborough Middle Henge is a Neolithic monument which is currently being repaired, but has areas of species-rich magnesian limestone grassland with plants including Dropwort Filipendula vulgaris, Common Rockrose Helianthemum nummularium and Dyer’s Greenweed Genista tinctoria.
To book, contact Janet John wfs.meetings@gmail.com or phone 01753 884490
Saturday 6th July: Hackfall Wood, Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire
Leader: Bruce Brown
Meet at 10:30 at the free Woodland Trust carpark HG4 3BS, Grid Ref. SE231775 approximately 0.5 miles before Grewelthorpe Village.
Hackfall Wood is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) owned by the Woodland Trust and is ancient woodland with soils a mix of acidic and calcareous and with many wet flushes. It was significantly landscaped during the 17th century and described as “one of the most beautiful woods in the country.” Over150 species were recorded on last Bradford Botany Group visit there. Interesting species include Thin-spiked Wood-sedge Carex strigosa, Herb-Paris Paris quadrifolia, Wood Fescue Drymochloa sylvatica, Common Cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense and many ferns including Polystichum x bicknellii with its parents P. aculeatum and P. setiferum.
Other features of the wood are the renovated follies, along with a working fountain which shoots water more than 30m, and alum springs.
To book, contact Janet John wfs.meetings@gmail.com or phone 01753 884490