Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

45*Meconopsis cambrica. Welsh poppy.•] -++-----Y_4 5As a native this species occurs on moist, shady screes and rocky places, often under trees andusually on base-rich soils in hilly country in Wales and south-west England (Ellis 1994).However, it is also widely naturalized on roadsides, gardens, walls and waste groundelsewhere in Britain, especially in the west where the climate is damper. Paradoxically likemany other rare native plants, it fruits profusely and spreads in gardens, but does not seem tospread in the wild.We have recorded it mainly in the urban areas, especially Forest Row and Nutley where itis quite widespread in gardens. It is endemic to western Europe, and is rare in Wales, England,Ireland, central France and the Pyrenees and Spain, and introduced elsewhere.*Chelidonium majus. Greater celandine.Six tetrad records in Hall (1980), but we only have four 1-km square records. This speciesmay be native in Britain, but is strongly associated with habitation in Sussex and was formerlycultivated as a medicinal herb.Widespread in England and Wales, and in Europe and North Asia.] -++-----"-+-4 5*Eschscholzia californica. Californian poppy.A few plants on new rubble in gateway, Old Lodge {461.3091. TR, 1994 but gone by 1995.It is regularly found naturalized or thrown out of gardens in southern Britain. Native ofsouth-western North America, where for instance it grows on rocky shores.] -++----"'-~Y_4 5FUMARIACEAE*Pseudofumaria lutea (Corydalis lutea). Yellow corydalis.Tetrad 43V (Hall 1980).Recorded once in woodland just off Cackle Street {453.2631. 1995, RN & ER. It is alsonaturalized in Forest Row where it has been recorded since at least 1956 (BRC), but not yetrecorded outside gardens in our Flora area.3 It is widely grown in gardens and churchyards, and is naturalized on walls and in damp,calcareous places throughout Britain. Native in the foothills of the Italian Alps, but widelyintroduced in Europe.4 5Ceratocapnos claviculata subsp. claviculata (Corydalis claviculata). Climbing corydalis.One substantial colony in secondary woodland on woodland edge immediately south-east oftee on Royal Ashdown golf course (c. 434.343), 1987, PS. The plants grew up to about 1metre tall through the young scrub (by 1995 this had grown up quite markedly), and were]-++-----"-+-visible at some distance. The Forest Row locality is a long way from the few other EastSussex sites. In Sussex as a whole it is a rare plant, usually on acidic soils of the Lower4 5Greensand in West Sussex and on the Ashdown and Tunbridge Wells sands in the east.An unusual species in being one of the few woodland annuals, and it may be veryabundant in some years but virtually absent in others The seedlings germinate in the autumnand over-winter, usually flowering in May and often continuing into the autumn in wet years.It will tolerate quite dense shade but prefers more open patches and path edges. It also occurs on heath land with bluebellsand wood anemones under bracken. Where such sites are planted with conifers it may once again become very abundantafter clearance.