"I visited a farm last winter in the Clun Valley when working as a farm advisor. Knowing that I had an interest in botany the farmer had asked if I'd like to come back in the summer to have a look at a 'flower-rich patch' on the farm. He wanted to know what was there and if the land qualified as a local wildlife site. I returned a couple of weeks ago and surveyed the land as a volunteer and recorded 18 axiophytes which included the three following sedges of the damp areas:
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| Carex panicea, Carnation Sedge |
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| Carex echinata, Star Sedge |
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| Carex demissa, Common Yellow-sedge |
There were eight sedges altogether and other lovely plants like Scutellaria minor, Lesser Skullcap and Achillea ptarmica, Sneezewort. Yes, the site did qualify as a wildlife site and this would include an adjacent dingle which I hope to return to sometime."
John Martin has also recently recorded an abundance of sedges, from Venus Pool (VP), the Shropshire Ornithological Society reserve. There he found no less than 13 different sedge species, one of which was Carex pallescens, Pale Sedge, which has a slightly western and upland distribution. This one was photographed from a meadow on the edge of Long Mynd. It only grows on an upper slope of the meadow where there is slight seepage of shallow ground water from the Long Myndian shales. It is certainly pale and note the crinkles at the base of the lowest bract:
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| Carex pallescens, Pale Sedge |
Last week I came across the stately Carex otrubae, False Fox-sedge, in a damp woodland ride. This year is was particularly abundant and widespread. The photo does not do justice to this large, striking sedge:
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| Carex otrubae, False Fox-sedge |
Back to the garden, Carex rostrata, Bottle Sedge is doing well in the pond. The next nearest wild population to me is only a couple of miles away as the crow flies on the Long Mynd, at Wild Moor Pool where it becomes very abundant and is eaten by the ponies which wade into the pool to belly height to reach it:
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| Carex rostrata, Bottle Sedge |
To a sedge with a totally different habit, Carex caryophyllea, Spring Sedge, a small species of short mesotrophic or acidic grassland. This one was starting to die back already in the drought of a few weeks ago and is next to a rabbit dropping for scale:
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| Carex caryophyllea, Spring Sedge |
Sedges are an interesting group, many being axiophytes - important indicator plants that reveal something about environmental conditions so are worthwhile investing a little time in getting to know. Some are actually quite distinctive and easy to identify, so don't be put off. There are resources available including the excellent BSBI Handbook No. 1 Sedges of the British Isles, by Jermy et al.
