Climate Walks happen on the 1st of each month.
1 Aug 2025 - Yorkshire Day. six of us made a repeat visit to Malham Tarn Fen.
A new plant not seen there before. Nettle-leaved Bellflower (and I have a list of 400 plants I have seen on the Malham Tarn Estate)
Three species of flowers in excellent condition: Bladderwort, Sawwort, Mare's-tail,
We set off from the car park. Could I encourage my friends to find and remember a lichen each, a moss each, a fern each, a grass each? (i.e. a total of five for each group)?. Angela wrote down all the plants we found. So many just on the road and track before we reached the fen.
Trees are so important for mosses in giving shade to walls - But if trees are too dense then very little can grow under them
The mature trees, (even if they are sycamore and beech), on the narrow sliver of land between the old dry stone- walled road (the track) and the current tarmac road "By pass (See link to old map)" also with drystone wall on one side, provide shade, enabling mosses to grow luxuriantly on the wall tops. - It is the combination of trees and light that allows this
We noticed Giant Bellflower (Campanula latifolia) with its huge, very pale-blue bell flowers and simple leaves on the main roadside and one plant on the trackside.
Once through the gate and onto the fen (but still next to the gate) Muff noticed a deeper blue bellflower that looked wrong..
because it was not a Giant Bellflower. It was Nettle-Leaved Bellflower (Campanula trachelium).. It had nettle-shaped leaves and hairs inside the corolla tube. I have never seen this recorded here before. Actually I am not sure I have ever seen it before (but may have bypassed it in someone's garden)
It was so beautiful that I actually came back up the next day when the sun was shining to take a better picture.
This does grow wild, especially further south.. but it also grows as a garden escape. I wonder where this one came from?
Bladderwort - The fastest insectivorous plant in the world (maybe)
Once onto the boards we turned left and came to what I call the Paul Holmes Pool. Paul Holmes was the first warden at the Field Centre (which closed three years ago), and arranged for a section of this pool to be cleared every two years, otherwise it would all fill in with vegetation then peat, by a process of succession. The open water areas allow Bladderwort to grow, an aquatic plant with divided leaves that have 2mm long bladders/ jugs with lids on them. The lids flick open when microscopic water animals swim past and the animals are sucked in - food for the Bladderwort. See useful
online videos here and here You can see the green divided leaves submerged in the water all year, but it is only in August - and then only some years when the water table is low -that you can see the beautiful snapdragon like flowers.
This year (2025) there were more than I have ever seen before, including one that was right next to the bridge/rail or the board walk.
The flower was about 1 cm across, It has a big spur;
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| The divided leaves have "bladders/jugs" to catch microscopic life |
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This picture shows the bladderwort flower, the bladderwort dissected leaves in the water, a Potomogeton (pondweed) that has holes in it made by the larva of the non-biting midge Cricotopus brevipalpis, and Water Horsetail - Equisetum fluviatile.
I remember Henry Disney (entomologist and the Field Centre Warden then) would tell us about the Cricotopus brevipalpis each time we came past it in the 1980s. This insect has a very disjunct distribution, |
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| Bladderwort |
As well as Water Horsetail in the pond (left), there is the much rarer Mare's-tail
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Water horse-tail on left, Hippuris vulgaris
on right.
Horsetail is an ancient plant, it has cones, not flowers, and its relatives lived at the time of the dinosaurs.
The Mare's-tail has tiny flowers |
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| See the tiny flowers in the axils of the leaves. |
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| August is the best time for Grass of Parnassus |
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| The stream today this year is completely full of Water Starwort Callitriche stagnalis |
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| Lesser Stitchwort Stellaria graminea looking, oh, so delicate. |
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| Angelica, Meadowsweet and Devil's-bit Scabious - but Oh, dear, the Reeds are continuing to increase and take over. (Shirley's picture) |
The Sawwort was looking really good. -
Must remember this date - 1st of August.
Some of the issues raised:Heat:
USA and Europe reaching record breakin temperatures this year because of heat does;
Spaiin and Portugal reached record breaking June temperatures: 46 degrees.
India:in just three years India's weather related deaths rose by 15% and damaged crop area more than doubled.
US budget: US Senators are debating a budget bill designed to take forward the Trump Administrations priorities , including:
a phase out of incentives for solar and wind energy projects;
a requirement for the government to sell leases for new oil and gas drilling including protected wetlands; to approve more coal production and to reduce regulation of the coal industry;
attempt to defund climate research and environmental monitoring.
Plastic Pollution: there is a big international Conference on limiting plastic pollution taking place in 5 - 14 August 2025, Geneva, Switzerland. I hope the leaders will agree on something. The Tarn Fen is (almost) litter free due to the respect that people treat the nature reserve. The 89% Project: Between 80 and 89% of the world’s people want their governments to be doing more to address climate change. Let’s tell their stories.
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The Malham Tarn Estate belongs to the National Trust. Malham Tarn House used to be leased to Malham Tarn Field Centre until three years ago. It is a fantastic jewel of a Nature Reserve. The National Trust continues to manage the Estate - Thank you.
After the walk we returned to the valley and I went to Langcliffe Yorkshire Day Celebrations where we shared a fine "Jacob's Join" - local expression for bring and share meal, on the Green, and sang on Ilkley Moor ba' t'at
