A wildflower scramble at Badbury Rings
August 9, 2011 by squirrelbasket
The approach to Badbury Rings, near Wimborne in East Dorset, in August 2011
Last week (August 1) I was in Dorset and without any planning in advance I found myself going for a walk around the Iron Age hill-fort of Badbury Rings.
Agrimony at Badbury Rings
As well as its archaeological value, the area is home to a dozen or so orchids – not that I found any on my visit in the height of the summer heat and sun, but I did spot many other wild flowers – in their natural habitat for a change, not as weeds in my garden…
Badbury Rings
Badbury Rings was probably built by the Durotriges tribe and was in use from around 800 BC to about AD 43 when the Romans came. The Romans built roads from Dorchester to Old Sarum (Salisbury) and Bath to Hamworthy (Poole) and these crossed near Badbury Rings, so it continued to have great strategic importance.
Badbury Rings
There had also been activity on the site long before the Iron Age – Neolithic stone tools have been found here and some Bronze Age round barrows remain.
Three Bronze Age round barrows at Badbury Rings
The site is also believed by locals to have connections with the legend of King Arthur, possibly as the scene of the battle of Mount Badon, the Celtic Arthur’s final victory over the Anglo-Saxons around AD 500.
The broad entrance through Badbury Rings to the tree-clad area at its heart...
Today Badbury Rings is part of the Kingston Lacy estate, bequeathed by the Bankes family to the National Trust.
Cattle under the trees at Badbury Rings - Red Devon cattle were introduced to the Kingston Lacy estate by Walter Bankes in the late 19th century
Of the following pictures, the general views were taken with my old Olympus camera and the flower close-ups with my Nikon macro lens. To be honest, the sun was so bright and hot that I couldn’t always tell what I was taking a picture of!
Annoyingly I had several stabs at tiny single harebells (Campanula rotundifolia), which I had never seen before, but not one picture was in focus. They are very like garden Campanulas but oh, so delicate…
A rubbish picture of a harebell...
A purple star growing close to the ground - possibly Centaurea?
One of the ramparts at Badbury Rings
A rather worn clover
But what I didn't see at the time, because of the searing sunshine, was this crab spider on the clover, possibly Xysticus cristatus...
Another, prettier clover...
Badbury Rings
A gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus), I think, although they are quite similar to meadow browns...
Badbury Rings commands the surrounding landscape
This may be knapweed, with a hoverfly...
This is surely ragwort...
Badbury Rings
A magnificent thistle {identified by Mel Lloyd as spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare)}
Another thistle - you may just be able to see a ladybird like a drop of blood in the middle...
Thistle down
Badbury Rings
Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria, I think)
Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) - which I have also seen as a lawn weed in the city...
Badbury Rings
I've no idea what rose burrs are, but surely that's what these are? {Mel Lloyd says they are robin's pincushion galls (Diplolepis rosae) - caused by a bedeguar wasp}
Then there are flowers I can identify only by their family. These are from the family Umbelliferae…
A yellow umbellifer {Mel Lloyd says it's probably wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)}
Burnet saxifrage? Sweet cicely? Cow parsley? I should have taken a picture of the leaves, too...
And these two belong to the butterfly-wing-flowered Papilionaceae…
Pink vetch...{identified as restharrow (Ononis repens) by Mel Lloyd - I was looking on the wrong page of my flora...}
Yellow vetch? {Mel Lloyd says birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) - I really should have known that one, but didn't recognise it as it was all yellow and I am more familiar with it as red and yellow 'bacon and eggs'}
And finally one I know well, even by its leaves…
Silverweed (Potentilla anserina)
And just to prove it I found a battered silverweed flower, missing one of its five petals, on the dusty car-park path...
I felt like I went on the walk with you! Lovely blog, beautiful photographs! Thanks for sharing :O) @Chaoskay
Thank you for the (very quick) response!
I have now subscribed to your blog and will look out for your postings with interest…
š
Definitely Gatekeeper, the double white dots in the black ‘eye’ are definitive
I thought that might be the case! Thanks for casting an “eye” over it for me…
Best wishes
š
What a lovely blog post! I enjoyed taking that digital walk with you.
Your yellow vetch is birdsfoot trefoil. Your pink vetch is restharrow. The burrs are Robin’s pincushion galls on rose. Your thistle looks like spear thistle. Your yellow umbellifer might be wild parsnip.
Mel
Wow, who needs my Keble Martin “Concise British Flora in Colour” when I have you to ask!
I will add those IDs to the captions at once.
I guess some of them are unfamiliar to me as they grow only on chalk land like Dorset’s.
I had guessed the spear thistle but in the flora they all look a bit similar to me!
Best wishes – and thanks again š
Thanks for the link to Flowers of Crete. Julia does a wonderful job.
Beautiful! I too went for that lovely walk. Thanks so much!
Thank you for your kind words…
š
It’s a comfort zone, to have blog readers, who chime in and help out with naming flowers and bugs. Need to nail down a few names for tomorrow’s post.
I usually have a go myself, using my flora book, but if I am unsure I am quite happy to have advice from people who know š
I look forward to your next post.
Best wishes…