Sunday 27 July 2014

Baking Braunton Burrows in mid-Summer

ITS probably just coincidence or serendipity but whenever we go to Braunton Burrows in north Devon its believably hot.  As part of a camping trip in early July whilst the better half sat on the beach I took the opportunity to go exploring the dunes, as the temperature soared.

The sand piles up into huge dunes held together with marram grasses.  This site is a national nature reserve and is a wonderful example of dynamic dunes communities where the shifting sands with poor soils and often drying conditions makes the growing conditions for the plants quite challenging.  There are also damp hollows with diverse marsh vegetation, including marsh helleborines, that were yet to flower.

Once past the grasping brambles the vegetation opens up with a spectacular show of flowering vetches, particularly restharrow, with evening primroses, Viper's-bugloss and pyramidal orchids:





Common centaury
Sea bindweed




No comments:

Post a Comment

Have your say...