Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

~'Cymbalaria mural is. Ivy-leaved toadflax, Creeping sailor, Mother of millions, Wandering Jew.Occasional on the Forest (Hall 1980).We have four records for this long-established introduction, three from walls which areits favoured habitat, and one from Gills Lap where it occurred on the ground in the car parkarea. Hall (1980) has records for three tetrads in our area but the only one which3 --+-+------'--t- corresponds to our records is for Nutley. Coleman (1836) recorded it from the yard of theDorset Arms in East Grinstead where it was still present in 1995.4 5A native of southern Europe, now widely naturalized on damp walls etc., in Britain,which matches its native habitat as a calcicole of shady rocks and woods. Once fertilised,the stalks of the flowers turn away from the light and push the fruiting capsules into creviceswhere the seeds can grow in a sheltered environment.155Kickxia spuria. Round-leaved fluellen.One seedling behind the seat outside the village hall at Fairwarp (466.263), 1995, PD & RN,presumably from mud kicked off a boot; it had gone by the autumn possibly when the carpark was renovated.K. spuria is significantly scarcer in Sussex than K. elatine and more calcicolous, and the3 --+-+------'--t- distribution in Hall (1980) shows very few records for the north-east of the county so thisrecord was a pleasant surprise although its chances of becoming established in the area mustbe rather slim. Common in southern, central and western Europe, and North Africa.4 5Kickxia elatine. Sharp-leaved fluellen.There is a record from Chelwood, 1939, G. E. Shaw (TLS) but the distribution map in Hall(1980) shows it is distinctly rare on the Ashdown Sands around the Forest.We now have two records: one large plant by a planted tree at Old lands Hall on whatlooked like local, not introduced, soil (476.277), 1995, RN et al.; one plant in stubble, Line's3 Farm (446.348), 1995, TR.Confined to the south of England; as far north as Lincolnshire in the east and occasionalin Wales. Common over much of southern, central and western of Europe.4 5Linaria vulgaris. Common toadflax, Butter and eggs, Brandy-strap, Gallwort.Rare, only found in a few waste places by habitation around the Forest, just as expected fromthe distribution shown in Hall (1980). Much of our area is probably too acidic and wet for thisspecies which, in Sussex, is clearly commonest on the chalk and drier western Greensands.It forms patches in open ground and on verges by the rhizomes which spread under the3 ground. Isolated clones may not set seed as it is self-incompatible.Widespread in lowland Britain and Europe and western Asia.4 5*Linaria purpurea. Purple toadflax.Like many introduced species, our data indicate that purple toadflax is rather more widespreadthan in the past. Wolley-Dod (1937) regarded it as rare in Sussex and gave a single record inour area: Marden's Hill, G. Marshal!. Hall (1980) states that it is becoming more frequent andrecorded it in two of our tetrads, 43H and 43V. We have seven records from disturbed or3 man-made habitats where it has been thrown out of gardens or spread by seeds.Increasing in England (Rich & Woodruff 1996). It is native in southern Italy.4 5