Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

145Stachys 8lvensis. Field woundwort.Chelwood Common, Miss M. Cobbe; near Fisher's Gate, rare, E, D. Morgan {Wolley­Dad 19371. Tetrads 42N and 42T (Hall 1980).One plant seen on a roadside near Suttons Farm (401.312), 1990, DB. Aninconspicuous but attractive annual normally found as a weed in arable fields on3 -++--------'-+- sandy, non-calcareous soils. Its rarity is to be expected given that, even in the past,arable land was never widespread in the Forest.Decreasing in England (Rich & Woodruff 19961. Scattered over Britain andmuch of Europe as far north as southern Sweden, Asia Minor and North Africa.4 5*Ba/Jota nigra. Black horehound.Surprisingly scarce, with only a single record from Horncastle (39.32), 1995, DB butthis is consistent with the distribution given in other sources. Hall (1980) shows it ascommon in the southern half of both East and West Sussex but very scarce in thenorth-east and north-west of the counties, and the distribution in Kent shows a3 -+t--------'+_ similar absence from the High Weald (Philp 19821. The same "hole" in its otherwisealmost ubiquitous distribut'lon in south-east England can be seen clearly in the map inPerring & Waiters (1990). Hall suggests a climatic factor may be involved in thedistribution but, if this really is the case, it is not clear what it might be. More work4 5is needed before the virtual absence of Bal/ota in this area can be explained.It occurs most frequently in dry, dirty, dusty places near habitation, and on waste ground, and maybeAshdown Forest is too up-market for it.Common in much of England, south and west Wales but rare in Scotland and only present in Ireland as anintroduction.Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. montanum fGaleobdolon luteum). Yellow archangel.Inadvertently omitted by Hall (19801 but shown as common in the map supplied ascorrigenda and published in Briggs (19901.We have records from eleven squares around the edges of the Forest. Yellow3 -++------'-1-archangel is distributed throughout the southern half of Britain and is generallythought to be an indicator of ancient woodland. Our records are for woods and,occasionally, old hedgebanks. Its distribution around the edge of the Flora area4 5reflects the fact that it is found only on the heavier base-rich clay soils, avoiding themore acidic sandy areas completely. Packham (1983) notes it grows poorly on soilsbelow pH 4.3.Widespread in Europe except Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, and found in Iran. Its northern limit inBritain may be caused by inhibition of sexual reproduction in the cool, damp summers. In Europe its southern limitmay be due to limited rainfall as it is not very tolerant of drought, and it is more restricted to woodland in theeastern part of its range (Packham 1983).*Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentatum (Galeobdolon 8rgentatum). Silver archangel.An increasingly common garden escape or, perhaps more accurately, garden throwout.Scattered around the Flora area near houses, on roads ides or beside lay-bys,where those who have become tired of its rampant growth in their gardens havediscarded it.3 -+-t----~-I- The origin of this subspecies is unclear but it is now scattered over much ofBritain. It has large silver blotches on the leaves (see Rich & Rich 1988)' but subsp.montanum plants may also have a few silver speckles.4 5Lamium album. White deadnettle.Generally regarded as a common plant, the distribution in Hall (1980) shows thatLamium album is indeed frequent in many parts of Sussex but is absent from much ofAshdown Forest and much of the Kent Weald, as is Bal/ota nigra too. This has beenconfirmed in our survey where we have records from only seven l-km squares in the3 -++----'"--4- north and east of the area. Although its absence from the more acid, sandy areas isunsurprising, it is not clear why it does not occur more widely around the edges of theForest. It is a weedy perennial species of disturbed, nutrient-rich sites (often fouled by4 5 dogs) but does not even seem common in our villages.'--------------'