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Report on our Eastside Botany walk. June 10th 2025
by Rosey Whittles - 13:51 on 25 July 2025
19 of us assembled at St Peter’s Kirk car park and we set off on a sandy path round Newark Bay, soon stretching out into smaller groups. Crossing the bridge we followed the path above the beach and sand dunes through the lyme and marram grass, until we came to great swathes of low-lying sea sand wort flowing down the dune onto the beach. These plants are very tough, fibrous and fleshy, able to survive the wind and amazingly resilient to the salt spray and the shifting sands. Interspersed in this light-green flowering carpet we saw the contrasting blue-green leaves - a giveaway sign of the more rare oyster plant! At first they appeared in just small clusters of blue leaves with a few, tiny blue flowers emerging. Later, more fully-formed rosettes of this delightful flowering plant were spread out on the sand for us all to admire. We walked on spotting more oyster plants as far as the burn which is now partly submerged - where sand has been extracted. In the remaining pockets of water we discovered some more unusual, waterside flowers to identify thanks to Kate. She found a low lying, small speedwell blue, spread recumbent at ground level, a taller pink stemmed plant on the bank possibly more stressed as growing on sand rather than in the water and then a fuller, shiny-leafed plant at least 30cm tall, which was found at the waters edge. They all had tiny, blue flowers but were surely not the same plant? John C. identified the speedwells as water pink speedwell and brooklime speedwell (veronica beccabunga!) We came back along the bank path to investigate flowers around St Peter’s kirkyard wall. The sea campions were prolific near the shore and also the yellow rattle along the path. This path is a delightful walk taking you past the Millennium Stone. It is full of meadow flowers. In the marshy, partly drained inland area there were many flag iris, marsh horsetail and a lovely specimen of a greater burdock in flower. Making a hasty exit from this site due to upsetting some rather agitated oyster catchers with their young hidden in the grass, we returned up the Eastside Road, some of us stopping off for refreshment at the Sorquoy “Cafe” before going home! I think we would all agree that it had been a most agreeable and informative afternoon.
On the beach path:
- Horsetail
- Yarrow
- Birdsfoot trefoil
- Ribwort plantain
- Hogweed
- Lady’s bedstraw
- Sand sedge
- Clover ( curly doddies)
- Common ragwort
- Oxford ragwort
- Field mouse-ear
- Chickweed
- Creeping thistle
- Spear thistle
- Sea mayweed
- Tormentil
- Creeping buttercup
- Dandelion
- Sour thistle
- Sea plantain
On the sand:
- Marram grass
- Sand sedge
- Lyme grass
- Sea rocket
- Sea sand wort
- Oyster plant
- Frosted or Babbingtons’s orache
- Agrostic fescue grass - very fine
- Silver weed
At the burnside:
- Red campion
- Cow parsley
- Coltsfoot
- Brooklime speedwell
- Pink water speedwell
- Field forget me not
- Rough stork meadow grass
- Mouse- ear chickweed
- Prickly sour thistle
- Goose grassOn the coastal path round the kirk:
- Yellow rattle
- Sea campion
- Flag iris
- Marsh horsetail
- Primrose
- Red clover
- Burdock
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