These pictures show us picking fruit at the Settle Community Hub Allotment at Cammock Lane Allotments on Thur 2 July. I was back there a week later this morning at 8am picking more raspberries - with the dew on the fruit in the cool before the day gets hot.
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Lecanora campestris often found on sandstone slabs at ground level - found on the kerb and cobbles at Langcliffe Fountain. (Identifying features: The edge of the thallus is white and the very edge is fimbriate (looks frayed). The dark brown discs have a pale "Jam-tart" rim. |
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| Langcliffe War Memorial |
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| Fern-Grass: Catapodium rigidum |
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| Circinarea contorta subsp contorta - grows on limestone and on concrete |
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| Getting Low |
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| Verrucaria nigrescens. This likes a base rich substrate such as limestone. |
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| Protoblastenia rupestis - Langcliffe cobbles. It likes concrete and limestone. |
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| Cladonia pocillum. I call it Limestone Pixie-cup, but I Naturalist calls it Rosette Pxie cup. |
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| 1. Candelariella vitellina - Common Goldspeck Lichen. This does not turn red when alkali (KOH) is applied. |
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| Candelariella vitellina - Common Goldspeck Lichen. Closer view This does not turn red when alkali (KOH) is applied |
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| 2. Common Sunburst Lichen Xanthoria parietina This is very common around Settle and turns red when KOH is applied. |
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| Filamentous alga. Maybe algae will get investigated in 2028.. |
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| Rhizocarpon reductum. This grows on siliceous acid rock, such as sandstone. The back discs often grow in concentric circles |
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| Rhizocarpon reductum. This grows on siliceous acid rock, such as sandstone. The back discs often grow in concentric circles |
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| There is a little bit of Lecanroa campestris (1st picture on this page) and Rhizocarpon reductum on these kerb stones. However, the biggest patches are formed by "Chewing gum lichen" Protoparmeliopsis muralis formerly called Lecanora muralis)s |
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Fern Grass is an uncommon grass in the Northern half of Britain.
I see Fern-Grass so rarely that I remember stories about all the places I have found it in Britain.
(Hint for vegetatively identifying this tiny annual grass of dry places, with leaves less than 2cm long - It has yellowish roots. - or look for dead flowers from last year)
To get it onto my list of Langcliffe Grasses in 2026 - and this gets it up to number 29 - there is only (now) one place I would have to go - the cobbles beside the Fountain in Langcliffe!!.
And there on 2nd July 2026 it still was. Its neat, regular inflorescences sticking up all of 1 or 2 inches (8cm) above ground level.
So low it required my hand lens and kneeling/lying mat.
This annual grass would have been flowering in late May. By now most of the flower heads have turned magenta-red-brown-fawn -
(That is those that had not finished and died altogether.)
I chatted to the owner of the house on the right. Tomorrow (Sat and Sun 4 & 5 July) is Langcliffe Open Gardens. His garden is open. He was just painting the white window frames on his house. He had just mown the grass on the cobbles he said ruefully when I explained I was looking at grasses. "That is fine for the fern grass I said, It doesn't like the more vigorously growing grasses.
This annual grass would have been flowering in late May. By now most of the flower heads had turned magenta-red-brown - (that is those that had not finished and died altogether..)
But a few had new green flower heads regrowing.
If you go to the cobbles there is a mown grassy, deep soil area near the birch tree where the grass is thick and there is no fern grass.
Look in the areas where there is bare soil between the cobbles - this year covered by mosses since we had a some periods of rain over winter and spring. There is lots of Annual Meadow-grass which has a more irregular flowerhead, light green leaves over 4mm wide that are folded lengthways, and which flowers all year (you will probably know it from your own garden)
Other grasses growing on the cobbled area (As well as the Fern grass and the Annual Meadow-grass) include: Cock's-foot, Rye-grass, Yorkshire Fog, Smooth Meadow-grass, Common Bent, Creeping Bent, Red Fescue,(plus near the birch tree- a big one I am thinking about - ) That's a total of ten yesterday.
I have a list of 16 herbs - (flowering plants that are not grasses).
You'll see me down there again shortly looking for another 4 to bring my total of plants on the cobbles up to thirty!!
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That's not to count the 11 species of lichens I can recognise, which I will do a post for later, the five species of moss I can differentiate and the alga in the fountain.
And just one note on the fountain - I wonder if it is fed by water sinking in the ground next to the carpark, where I found the Plicate Sweet Grass last week - where the highways department were placing a drain . ?? Or is it fed from our water supply. Or was it built when they built the institute?. Can anyone from Langcliffe tell me?
DO come to Langcliffe Open Gardens 4-5 July
Wildflower walks round Settle from Covid onwards..
Grasses - index to posts about different species of grass on this site
I hope you have enjoyed looking into the fascinating world of the cobbles round the fountain at Langcliffe.
There are two parts to this post.
1. The more serious "How to identify it" part to fit in with my series on grasses in this blog.
Crested Hair-grass is a grass most beginner botanists have not heard of, because there are big parts of Britain where it does not grow.
It is a beautiful small grass of low nutrient limestone and chalk pastures, and base rich sandy areas by the sea. It grows where we can often find other delightful lime-loving flowers. It can grow in some old meadows on base rich soil.
It is unlikely to occur in places that most people walk over most of the time: city streets - heavily fertilised meadows, in playing fields or lawns (unless your lawn happens to be on very thin chalk or limestone soil), in wetlands or bogs or woodland. And it is so very small, so people just do not see it.
It is one of the indicator species of old grassland I had to look out for when surveying grassland for the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Without flowers it is quite hard to identify - until you notice the tiny hairs that line the edge of the leaf blades and the tops of the ridges on the upper surface if the of the tiny (2mm wide, 3cm long) blades of grass.
When I was at the Field Studies Council's Malham Tarn Field Centre teaching A level Ecology weeks we compared the vegetation on different types of grassland and looked at different ways of measuring species abundance. For example we compared plants on rendzinas (shallow limestone soil) and brown earths (deeper soil but still not too acid)
Some of you might know Red Fescue (Festuca rubra) and Common Bent (Agrostis capillaris). For the tiny grasses in the turf I used to say "If it has needle-like leaf blades, call it Festuca rubra; If it has flat leaf blades call it Agrostis capillaris. Agrostis leaves do have ribs, but they are very fine ribs: Festuca rubra at the base have needle-like leaves, but when its shoots start to flower they produce wider leaves with about 5 to 7 to 9 ribs.
Koerleia is about half way between this.
BUT IT HAS HAIRS ON THE RIBS ON THE BLADES when looked at with a hand lens.
Its inflorescences are quite distinctive- Slightly silvery; they can be compact most of the time like a lombardy poplar, but sometimes the inflorescence branches spread out - when the weather is conducive for the florets to shed their pollen.
The inflorescence has a hairy stem. The only other common grass with a hairy stem is Yorkshire Fog.
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| 25 June 2026 - at Winskill Stones Plantlife Reserve but probably been flowering for a week or two. |
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| The slope opposite the Quarry cutting Car Park at Plantlife's Winskill Stone Reserve is a good place to see Crested Hair-grass Note this year you can see that the "Landscape Picture Ash tree" has really been affected by Ash die-back |
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| Koeleria macrantha 20 June 2024 limestone pasture slope in Lower Winskill Farm |
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| Small Heath butterfly on Koeleria macrantha, on YWT's Southerscales reserve |
And here are a few plants growing with it:
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| Thyme. |
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| This is Thyme-leaved Sandwort - it is extremely tiny. |
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| Salad Burnet close-up - each flower has four green sepals and at the end of the style is the tassel of red stigmas. |
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| Bird's-foot Trefoil |
Wildflower walks round Settle from Covid onwards..
Grasses - index to posts about different species of grass on this site
Why do my posts cover so many topics at once? I ask myself.
Huh.
First, to continue my "When do grasses come into flower at Langcliffe (Yorks Dales)?" theme..
I was delighted on 23 June to notice a special grass right next to Langcliffe Car Park, opposite the church... This, I think is the first time I have ever found it in Langcliffe Parish: Plicate Sweetgrass, Glyceria notata. It is growing next to the Yellow Flag, another water loving plant. (I haven't even included it in my special set of Grass posts - yet - It is 700m rather than 200m away from home.)
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| Checking that the lemmas (the outside of the florets) are 4-5-5mm long. Excuse the not 100% clean fingernails.fingernails. |
Why is it special? - It only grows in specially wet places.
And although, being on limestone, Langclife Parish soils are very dry, the one place in the village that gets wet is at the foot of the Langcliffe Brow slope.
In very wet weather the drain under the ground can't take all the water so water runs down the side of the road of Langcliffe brow and makes this patch of grass wet. (and haven't we been warned our climate is getting wetter?)
It is the biggest of the three very similar Sweetgrasses (1. Plicate, 2. Glaucous and 3.Floating Sweet-grass) At home I later checked that its florets were only 5mm long, not 6mm as in Floating Sweetgrass.
Today Tue 23 June was Eco Explorers.
We had planned to drive up Langcliffe Brow and walk on the hills. But the Road Diversion signs had appeared again - saying the road was closed for a fortnight. So we decided on village activities instead.
In fact the road WAS open. They are putting a new drain in beside the road (to take the stream water ). But is is only the side of the road that is affected, apart from when the big vehicles are there. Which they weren't.
The weather was so hot that we decided to remain where there was the shade of trees. This is part of the second hot spell in 2026.
Our planned one kilometer walk was replaced by a 20 meter walk from the cars to the Yellow Flag and Sweetgrass patch, to the opposite side of the road near the church where the verge was wide enough to put out a blue sheet under the shade of the sycamore and cherry tree.
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| Hedge Woundwort |
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| Ground Elder (The leaves, when crushed, have a distinctive smell.) |
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| Elderflower. This bush has similar shaped leaves with leaflets to Ground Elder |
The fourth smelly wildplant was growing just next to our blue picnic mat - Pineapple Weed.
After our mini-picnic with cherries from Booths, we visited the church where we treated each child to chose a book from the big selection of children's books for sale.
After a short visit to the children's play area across the green, we made plans for three weeks time (Tue 14th) to revisit the Hoffmann Kiln. That will be the last Eco-Explorers after school walk this term.
There will be an Eco Explorer's Day camp at Lower Winskill Farm on Monday 24 August. Look out for a poster telling you how to book for that (or contact me).
Wildflower walks round Settle from Covid onwards..
Grasses - index to posts about different species of grass on this site
Midsummer day near the Ribble at Langcliffe:
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| Helictochloa pratensis - Meadow Oat-grass by the Ribble |
16 species of grass in flower before breakfast on the main-road-side, and a country track .. and
8 more just now down near the river after supper
- and all within 200 metres of my house near Langcliffe in the Yorkshire Dales. What a privilege! - total - 24!!..
Plus 4 more whose leaves I saw but it is too early for the flowers
Plus 4 more I might be lucky enough to find one day within the 200metres: The total will be 31 by July!
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| Rye-grass (Lolium perenne) and Soft Brome (Bromus hordeaceus) |
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| False Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius) |
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| Hungarian Brome (Bromopsis inermis) |
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| Upright Brome (though leaning over here!!!) (Bromopsis erecta) |
Morning finds:
Alopecurus pratensis Meadow Foxtail
Anthoxanthum odoratum Sweet Vernal-grass
Arrhenatherum elatius False oat-grass
Avenula pubescens Downy Oat-grass
Bromus hordeaceous Soft Brome
Bromopsis erecta Upright Brome
Bromopsis Hungarian Brome
Cynosurus cristatus Crested dog's-tail
Dactylis glomerata Cock's-foot
Elymus repens Couch-grass
Festuca rubra Red Rescue
Lolium perenne Rye-grass
Schedonorus pratensis Meadow Fescue
Poa annua Annual Meadow-grass
Poa pratensis Smooth Meadow-grass
(or subcaerualea)
Poa trivialis Rough Meadow-grass
Evening:
- On limestone bedrock bank that was a former pasture, but has been fenced off by the Ribble Rivers Trust for about ten years.
Briza media Quaking Grass
Elymus caninus (almost in flower) Bearded Couch
Festuca ovina Sheep's Fescue
Helictochloa pratensis Meadow Oat-grass
Phalaris arundinacea (almost in flower) Reed Canary-grass
Schedonorus arundinaceus Tall Fescue
Sesleria caerulea Blue Moor-grass
Trisetum flavescens Yellow Oat-grass
Down near the river.
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| Meadow Oat-grass Helictochloa pratensis |
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| Quaking-grass Briza media |
Leaves see but not in flower:
Agrostis capillaris - not in flower
Agrostis stolonifera - not in flower
(Schedonorus gigantea ) - not in flower
(Brachypodium sylvaticum) - not in flower
Hope to see next month -
Bromopsis ramosa
Molinia caerulea?
Phleum pratense
Aira praecox (near railway)
See my many posts on individual species
Read online the article I wrote for the North Craven Heritage Trust - A Grass for every month in North Craven. p27, edition 2009 - Where I state there are 72 native grasses in North Craven and about 7 non-native growing wild.
