Malham Tarn Fen -1 July 2022 - Walk for the Climate

Some pictures from our walk on 1 July at Malham Tarn Fen.

This was a coolish day - before the heatwave that struck two weeks later. 

We welcomed two extra people who had seen the walk advertised in Facebook 

Bogbean

We saw at least 8 lizards , some in groups of three. This amazed me.
Usually we are lucky if we see one or two.
Is it because it was so cold that they did not run away?

  Euphrasia rostkoviana ssp monticola  -
Large Sticky Eyebright -
this is fairly rare -see Distribution Map 
Alan Silverside first showed me this here in the 1980s

Glad to see the bund holding this  pond on the bog is holding. The National Trust made them about ten years ago. Some Sphagna (Bog-mosses)- including S cuspidatum are growing in the pools
The original sphagnum species (Sphagnum austinii) which was forming the peat mostly over the past 5000 years up till recently died out in the Industrial revolution 200 plus years ago. .

Here is a photo of a section of a leaf of S austinii that I made in 2004, that came from pear in the peat cliff as the side of the Tarn.  You can recognise it because of the comb fibrils (spiral reinforcing fibrils clearly visible)  on the edge of the cell walls.   Prof Piggott or Mike Proctor I forget which- planted a few bits south of Spiggott Hill but I never was able to find them.