WFV, Allerthorpe Common, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve, Tuesday, 4th June, 2023
We left Bradford in the minibus on a cloudy, chilly day, destination Allerthorpe Common, to the south east of York, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve within Forestry Commission woodland. A main point of interest was to find a patch of May Lilies within the nature reserve, and the possibility of seeing Adders - opinion was divided as to whether that would be desirable. Plenty of flowers and grasses to be seen central-motorway and on verges en route (hard to definitively identify at a distance and at speed!)
Still in the car park the first flowers spotted on leaving the minibus were Green Alkanet, which led to the question of why 'green' when the flowers are so intensely blue. Clarified when Black Medic was spotted later and there was discussion of the colours different plants produce when used for dying (eg Dyer's Greenweed (not seen here))