Sunday 17th July 2016.
Right place, right time but a day late for the Cambridge Flora Group walk across Chippenham Fen: I decided on a backup plan to try and visit Cavenham Heath in Suffolk and look for Smooth Catsear.
I had visited the heath many years ago and remember it as a sandy open area that might be suitable.
Smooth Catsear is very rare in Cambridgeshire and occurs more frequently in Breckland, across into Suffolk.
Right beside the track that runs across the Heath as it approaches Temple Bridge I found about a hundred plants which had mainly finished flowering but were showing off their seed heads.
The strange feature about the seeds is that some are beaked ( they become thin towards the pappus, the thin parachute of hairs than catch the wind to disperse the seed)) while others are not beaked, being thick right up to the pappus. In the photo above most are beaked but the outer ones are non beaked , all on the same flower head. This is a special feature of Smooth Catsear and got me searching for an open flower to photograph. Not far along the track I found a few plants which still had flowers, but none were open. Flowers tend only to open in the mornings.
The narrow shape is quite distinctive but the red fringing to the bracts is not a feature I have seen on any other composite ( Catsear, hawk bit, hawksbeard etc).
Final photo of reddish leaves, another feature.
A new species is always good, especially when you are searching for it.
Peter Leonard. Feb 2018
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