Narborough Nature Reserve

Took a quick walk in Narborough Nature Reserve this morning near Swaffham in Norfolk. It is owned by Norfolk Wildlife Trust and managed by Butterfly Conservation. It runs along a section of a disused railway that ran from King's Lynn to Swaffham. The chalk embankment is rather similar to what you might expect further south. Unsurprisingly for this time of year the flowers were looking a bit sorry for themselves but there was still a reasonable number of plants of scabious. I think the scabious in the pictures are field scabious (Knautia arvensis).

One particular thing that interested me was this creamy substance over various parts of grass. It looked like fox vomit or similar. On arrival home there was a post on the discussion list [UKWildlife] from someone describing the same thing and calling it dog vomit! Colin Duke on the group has identified it as Mucilago crustacea, one of the Myxomycetes, a primitive slime mould.

There were other chalkland species there such as the following six pictures. Below left is I think a knapweed possibly Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) although the shape of the base of the flower makes me consider Sawwort (Serratula tinctoria). Below right is the Harebell (Campanula).

Below left is Marjoram (Origanum vulgare)and below right Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare).

Below left is the Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) - I have no idea if you can eat the root or not. Look very carefully and you'll spot the only insect seen on the walk - a single fly!! I don't think the picture to the right is good enough to identify but it could be something like a Hawkbit or Catsear. The fungus at the bottom I think might be a Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), a well known edible species. I wouldn't trust myself to eat it though!