Settle Wildflowers - Day 98 - Orange 6: Wallflower; Green 12: Wood Meadow-grass and Field Garlic leaves on Castleberg Crag

We have very few orange wildflowers in this country; Most insects cannot see the colour orange. So only flowers of other colours are successfully pollinated. 

Here at last, at the foot of Castleberg Crag, I have another orange flower - Wallflower.  Erysimum cheiri.   Like most of the other orange flowered plants, is a garden escape. Wallflowers come out in early spring. and on several New Year Plant Hunts I find one. 

It is December 1st - the first of the month 

The Wallflowers are at the foot of the cliff to the right of the picture.

I make two visits to Castleberg Crag - one on 1st December; then one on 6 December

1. 1st December:

Churches Together in Settle have started doing a "Walk for the climate on the first day of the month" and Castleberg Crag- Settle's "Town Park" is a good place to go for a walk

There are lots of Wallflower plants at foot of the climbing cliff near the top of Castleberg  but I only found one in flower. (I found more on 6th)

I am keen to continue with the tradition (started last month) of going for a walk with Churches Together to take part in the national "Pray and Fast for the Climate" scheme. In Settle we do "Walk for the climate - Litter Picking and Observing Nature and Flowers en route". This time due to Covid Restrictions not allowing groups of bigger than 2, it is myself and Rev Stephen Dawson.  Tuesday morning has an excellent sunny foreecast.

A drawing of the hill from the 1700s shows Castleberg as a grassy (rocky?) but definitely treeless slope, with slabs laid out on the way up to act as a Sundial. 

In. c. 2000  I joined a group from Craven Conservation Group and the Yorkshire Dales Conservation Volunteers led by Russ Turner. We cut down a lot of the young trees and scrub on the slope to let light reach the ground flora. "Don't get sad about cutting the trees and saplings," Russ said. "It will coppice and there will be more trunks than ever."

Quite true. The trees are getting denser. There is not much ground vegetation except periwinkle, and near the entrance Field  Garlic. Allium oleraceum ssp oleraceum (see picture at end)

         In 2008 Churches Together held our traditional "Dawn" or early morning Service on Easter Sunday. It snowed. The all-aged participants - some very elderly - made it up the slope to the flat area near the bottom. That was the last year we held it here. Since then it has been held adjacent to one of the town car parks.

I list the other flowers seen : Smooth Sow-thistle, Golden Oatgrass, Leafy Hawkweed, Wall Lettuce, and Herb Robert - but I'm saving Herb Robert for another day.

Just below the crag a lot of scrub has been cut down - well done - good to open up and area. 

At the summit the sloe bushes which formed a protective thick spiky hedge between the path at the top and the vertical twenty foot plus drop have been removed.

I am concerned about that.

It would be easy for someone to step backwards and fall the 20 foot plus drop.

Worse, someone might say "it is not safe" and then prevent people going up.

The noise of a drill down at roadworks in the street below somewhat disturbs the silence.

From the top we can with the now revealed much better panoramic view see far and wide - including just to the top of Giggleswick Church, almost hidden in the valley behind Settle College (High School) .

I look at the "Wildlife in a churchyard book" that  my friend Doris Cairns has at last produced about Giggleswick churchyard

View of top of Giggleswick Church Tower from the the top of Castleberg - It is just behind Settle College in the foreground.

There is a Leafy Hawkweed in flower near the flagpole

Round the open area near the bottom,  I see they have planted hundreds of trees. Well maybe a hundred. That is a shame it will block the view here. I wonder if they will make them into a hedge. The surrounding trees are getting so dense there is little space for ground vegetation. And there will be more plastic tree guards rattling around. 

We continue litter picking - it is difficult on the steep slope.

Once back down at the safety of ground level, 

we support a local café, 

meet passers by and enjoy looking at Doris book

2. On Sunday 6 December I return, 

with the aim of photographing Poa nemoralis Wood Meadow-grass, that I had seen on 1 Dec and looking for the plants that I had videod in Jan 2012 nearly nine years ago.. True the flowers are straw coloured, not green - they  have remained since June 2020 - but they are there.

I walk up the gentle path through the "private" woodland at the entrance above the Coop.

Wood Meadow-grass at the foot of this beech tree.

Here is the video from 2012, and more information on Poa nemoralis.: 

The video of Poa nemoralis in Castleberg Wood

Shortly after entering the Castleberg Wood I found some (what I think is) Soft Shield Fern Polystichum setiferum - These blog posts are meant to be about flowers, and Ferns don't have flowers. - but I was delighted to find this fern. All the other Shield Fern I have ever noticed around Settle has been Hard Shield Fern, P aculeatum. 

I proceed to the summit. It is quiet today without the noise of the road works.. 

But then I hear voices - climbers below climbing the rock face below me:. and in the distance cheers at the Rugby Club:   - A jackdaw.  - A gull. - an aeroplane, p  road traffic. No not particularly quite. - The clear air allows the sound to travel.

My list of wildflowers extends - as I notice more plants that I had missed on exactly the same path the previous Tuesday.

I see:
White:
a solitary Sloe flower.
Burnet Saxifrage
Bramble
Orange:-
More orange Wallflowers on the cliff
Yellow:
A patch of Rough Hawksbeard
Soft Sow-thistle
Prickly Sow-Thistle
Dandelion
Leafy Hawkweed
Ivy
Golden Oatgrass,
Wall Lettuce,
Red:-
Herb Robert - But I'm saving Herb Robert for another day.

So that is 13 species -  (plus the Poa nemoralis and probably Poa annua) Not bad for 6 December.

A  sloe flower with two petals left on it.

I meet a young couple and enjoy chatting and discussing the view.
And showing them Aspicilia calcarea and Caloplaca flavescens lichens

I descend and enjoy meeting the climbers.  They quickly pick up the names  the Aspicilia calcarea and Caloplaca flavescens. I admire their extendable pole for fixing ropes and carabines though the hooks  Beta Climbing Designs 

Lower down I get to the Field Garlic Site.

I can never remember if it is  Allium oleraceum or Allium vineale. this time I will check using Poland and Clement's Book

It is Allium oleraceum - Field Garlic,

Because:

It has blunt tips to the leaves   (not pointed leaves)

with a whitish area at the tip.

The leaves are solid  for most of their length (not hollow)

They have 3-5 ridges and grooves on the undersurface of the blade. (not a cylindrical blade with 10-18 ridges) .

Apparently they do not have a ligule.

Safely down.

   Click here for more  Settle Lockdown Wildflower Walks