BOTANICAL SURVEY
Mike Poulton, a prominent regional botanist carried out a Botanical Survey of Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve on the 2nd of May 2010.
He considers that Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve to contain one of the best examples of Alder Carr woodland in the whole of Birmingham and the Black Country and it most certainly has one of the biggest concentration of Large Bitter-cress (Cardamine amara) in the conurbation.
Mike also throught that by the creation of the boardwalk through the woodland it would help to preserve this special area from trampling and at the same time enable visitors to enjoy the woodland without getting their feet wet.
He also noted that large tussocks of Carex paniculata along the edge of the pool and commented that this was pretty special and rarely found elsewhere in Birmingham and the Black Country.
We like to record our thanks to Mike for carrying out the Botanical Survey and for his help and guidance. He is planning to make a further visit later in the year to look for late-summer flowering plants that may have been missed.
Items of special interest:-
Aegopodium podagraria ground-elder undesirable invasive species
Cardamine amara large bitter-cress rare
Carex paniculata greater tussock-sedge very rare
Chrysosplenium oppositifolium opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage uncommon
Hypericum androsaemum tutsan rare
Menyanthes trifoliata bogbean rare
Potentilla palustris marsh cinquefoil rare
Prunus laurocerasus cherry laurel undesirable invasive species
Ribes rubrum red currant uncommon
Symphoricarpos albus snowberry undesirable invasive species
Typha angustifolia lesser reedmace rare
Valeriana officinalis common valerian rare
Viburnum lantana wayfaring tree rare