CNHS Coe Fen Survey

Coe Fen  Our project for 2005 involved surveying the flora of the meadows from Coe Fen to Paradise LNR.  The preliminary Coe Fen species list [updated 2006 January 1] includes the most recent Paradise species list [updated 2005 October 25].  There are also lists of common species and species seen over the last 100 years to look out for.  We designated  set areas [2Mb image] for logging the species.  The flora entries on our list have been vetted by the county recorders.  The normal meeting point for the surveys was at the Lammas Land car park (map reference 447573).  Take the track at the corner of Newnham Road and Barton Road, where the traffic lights are.  This runs down the side of Lammas Land to the car park.  

2010 - 2019 A BioBlitz took place in 2012 covering Coe Fen and conservation work takes place in Paradise LNR so there is already some coverage during this decade.  

We return to the area in 2015.  The recording areas are simplified from 2005 to cover Paradise LNR, Coe Fen North, Coe Fen South, Sheeps Green North, Sheeps Green South, New Bit, the Botanic Garden and generally in TL4457 and TL4557 (The links take you to the botanical recording cards).  There is also a general list covering everything else that we may see.  Botanically the area started with 479 species from TL4457, 211 from TL4557 and 602 in the tetrad TL45N.  By the close of the October visit these totals had increased to: 589, 460 and 757 respectively.   Meeting points will usually alternate between the mill race (TL44705801) and the Lammas Land Car Park (TL44635733).  The final visit is on November 22, meeting at 11am at the Lammas Land Car Park.  It will focus on mosses and liverworts.

The Mill Race : January 1, April 26, June 18 (6pm), August 20 (6pm), October 25 (fungi, 1pm)
Lammas Land : March 29, May 21 (6pm), July 16 (6pm), September 27 (lichens), November 22 (bryophytes, 11am) 
Meet at 2pm unless otherwise stated.

Coe Fen through the seasons

2015 November 22 was a cold bright day, something of a shock after several weeks of very mild weather.  Our final field study visit focussed on bryophytes and began in Lammas Land car park.  To allow late comers a chance to rendezvous we started with some mosses of the car park, before moving into Paradise to look for better specimens.  Here we began with two of Cambridgeshire's commonest mosses: Brachythecium rutabulum and Kindbergia praelongia near the lake.  We then moved into the willow carr to look for epiphytes and soon found most of the expected species, including the liverwort Frulania dilatata, unusually growing on Elder.  Jonathan found a large patch of a tiny liverwort growing on Willow, after a lot of looking eventually found the five keeled perianths that confirmed it as Cololejeunea minutissima.  We had our picnic lunch in the carr, then moved on via the banks of the Cam to St Marks church.  Here we found another two common mosses: Caliergonella cuspidata and Rhytididelphus squarrosus.  From there we headed towards the Sidgwick Site, primarily to see the rare (for Cambridgeshire) Pogonatum urnigerum growing on granite hoggin, but also saw two species of Plagiomnium growing adjacent to each.  We now headed back to Lammas Land via Sheep's Green finding a few more species along the leets.

2015 October 25 was dry and sunny after some rain the previous day.  We began at the mill race and explored the northern part of Sheep's Green.  After a slow start we found several grassland fungi including Snowy Waxcap and Yellow Fieldcap.  A felled willow had a cup fungus and also a young Common Inkcap, which we also found in other stages of growth.  Near the underpass we found a Blewitt.  Crossing into Paradise there was a lot more dead wood and moss covered tree trunks, which had small Mycenae, and a log had some Candlesnuff Fungus.  Although a couple of walkers said that there were some large fungi on a log just around the corner, there was no sign of them so we circled back on the upper track.  A diversion into the old tennis court wood gave us Jew's Ear and King Alfred's Cake, but also signs of Ash Dieback.  Leaving Paradise we headed back to our starting point across Coe Fen.  This was generally much poorer in fungi than Sheep's Green, though a rotting stump on the island by Fen Causeway did have some large (unidentified) specimens.

2015 September 27 was a fine autumn day with lots of sunshine for our visit which began at Paradise.  The weather was ideal for looking a lichens, though as we had no experts, identification was restricted to some of the common species on the FSC cards.  The first thing added to our list was however Yellow Oat-grass growing at the edge of the car-park.  Moving into the reserve to view the meadow, we were assailed by Harlequin Ladybirds, showing several of their colour morphs.  A willow branch gave us our first lichens, and also several colonies of aphids trying to disguise themselves as lichens.  An ash gave us several more, then we were diverted to eradicating more Himalayan Balsam, which was still persisting at its previous location.  We then headed for St Mark's churchyard, but on the way admired several spiders, including one that played dead by turning over on its back.  The memorial cross had several more lichens, as did a Cherry with a very large girth.  As we still had some time in hand we crossed Barton Road and explored a few little explored corners, including Wordsworth Grove where Millet was a botanical addition.  By now it was getting later in the day, so we crossed to Sheep's Green and meandered back along the river, without finding much else of note. 

2015 August 20  Some light drizzle not captured by the Met Office computer promised a damp start, however it was gone by the 6pm meeting and we even had some brief late evening sunshine.  We started with Coe Fen north, however it had recently been mown by the Council, who may not be aware of their management plan for the Fen.  This did allow access to the ditches however, and we added a few species, including the Thistle gall Urophora cardui.  We then crossed to Robinson Crusoe Island to see the Green-flowered Helleborine.  We didn't find it where we had seen it the previous month (though the tent had gone), but Alan Leslie eventually spotted a couple of flowering spikes.  Crossing Fen Causeway we searched the island section along the river, but failed to find any further spikes.  We did however re-find the hybrid between Marsh and Common Ragwort near the same location where Alan Leslie had found it in 1977.  We returned along the central ditch in the hope of seeing the Whorl Grass which Jonathan had found the previous month, but it was not obvious.  Our final point of discussion was a Rose with hairy leaves near the cycle path in the northern section, which we finally agreed was a hairy Dog Rose.

2015 July 16  The weather was fine throughout, for what was eventually a two part meeting.  In the morning a group was loaned a punt to carry out clearance of Floating Pennywort from the Cam.  The intrepid trio began by eliminating an undesirable addition to the Paradise species list - Himalayan Balsam.  This plant ended being the focus for the first half of the punt trip, despite having been cleared a few weeks previously by the Tuesday conservation group.  Once past the bathing station the Pennywort began to appear and progress slowed to the extent that we only got half-way up the Grantchester Meadows before having to return.  We did however spot two Pondweeds that are on the county rare plant list.  At 6pm the second leg began with a gang of four walking round Paradise.  Our walk was slightly delayed by an old lady who amongst other things told us that the nettles were the tallest she had ever seen them.  We admired the new meadow, then looked at the pond edge, where Jonathan noted an unusual Rush, which he thought was Round-fruited Rush, which although relatively common across Cambridgeshire is Near Threatened in England.  From there we headed for Robinson Crusoe Island, to see if we could re-find the Green-flowered Helleborine.  Although a tent was pitched on the spot where it mostly grew, a few flowers were found nearby.  The remaining members of the group then completed a circuit of Sheep's Green, but didn't find any further notable species.

2015 June 18  We had a fine although slightly cool evening for our June visit.  We met at the Mill Race and headed for Coe Fen.  The patch of disturbed ground was luxuriant in Hedge Mustard Sisymbrium officinale, but nothing new had come up.  Stopping by the Pokeweed, which was now in flower, the key took us to Phytolacca acinosa, and which Mark Hill said was very different to the plant in his garden.  A little further on, the rose was now in flower and appeared to match the requirements for R. caesia subsp caesia.  We were now urged to hurry on as Mark Hill had arranged with the Pearsons for us to look round their garden.  We paused briefly to look at the ditch, where there was Hairy Sedge Carex hirta and the Forget-me-not was in flower allowing us to identify it as M. scorpioides.  The Pearson's garden is extensive, with grazing meadow running down to the river.  Altogether we noted over 100 species of plants in the garden, most notable being Spiked Sedge Carex spicata and an area of older grassland with Yellow Oat-grass Trisetum flavescens, Field Wood-rush Luzula campestris and Ladies Bedstraw Galium verum amongst others.  We also noted several plant galls, most unusual being a strawberry gall on Ground Ivy caused by Liposthenes glechomae.  We finished by remote sensing (using binoculars) patches of Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre growing on the roof.  We then had a short look round Mark Hill's garden, which has some impoverished banks ideal for chalk grassland plants, and which somewhat to his surprise is actually bisected by four monads.  With the sun setting we headed back to the Mill Race, managing to add a few further species on the way.

2015 May 21  The day before had seen a chilly Arctic wind, but today if anything it was too warm when the CNHS party met up.  We began with a look at Paradise LNR where a new meadow area had been created.  Several more plant species were added to the list of introductions!  Over the meadow a Mayfly was seen rising up, and later we saw one close up after its day was done.  Mark Hill noted several interesting mosses.  We failed to spot the Tree Creeper that had been seen in the reserve earlier in the week.  Leaving Paradise we walked through some of the streets and back lanes of Newnham.  A local couple informed us that they were nearly winning their battle against Japanese Knotweed, but enough remained to add it to our species list.  We crossed Lammas Land to Sheeps Green and then crossed to Coe Fen.  Here we noted the Sweet Briar found by Monica a few years ago and the majority of the party didn't sense the scent of the London Plane leaves.  The disturbed ground didn't have much in the way of interesting weeds, nor could we find any of the Pink Shepherd's Purse.  A downy rose by the path might be Rosa caesia, but more evidence will be needed on our next visit.

2015 April 26  Although the long range forecast at the beginning of the week threatened rain all day, the weather was dry but overcast at the start of the walk, and sunny by the time we headed home.  We began with Coe Fen and spent some time looking at the arable weeds that had come up on the patch of newly disturbed ground near the entrance.  Here we found a patch of Thale Cress Arabidopsis thaliana and Long-headed Poppy Papaver dubium, new since 2005.  Crossing the road to the southern section we walked along the central ditch where we found Blunt-flowered Rush Juncus subnodulosus, not noted in 2005 - there was also a 7-spot ladybird here.  On New Bit we found Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum umbellatum, possibly planted within the last decade.  Several new species had come up in the re-modelled part of Paradise, most of them introductions, but a few, such as Water Plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica (which had some Greater Plantain causing confusion nearby) arising because of the newly created habitat.  A Speckled Wood fluttered through the glade.  We finished by checking the Purple Toothwort Lathraea clandestina growing on willow on Sheeps Green.

2015 March 29  With a mad March wind and squally showers it was not an ideal day to record wildlife.  Our small group had a walk round Paradise, where the paths have been much improved by the laying of bark chippings.  One new species here was a young Beech sapling growing in the car park.  Alan Leslie noted a Snowdrop, which had broad, slightly folded leaves which implied the hybrid between G. nivalis and G. plicatilis.  A couple of heavy showers struck as we crossed Coe Fen to New Bit.  By the footbridge over the river we found a patch of  Rescue Brome which may have come in with spoil used to build up the cycle ramp, though from its long awns it might have been California Brome.  Several ferns were growing on the bank of Vicar's Brook, including Soft Shield-fern.  On the edge near the main road we found Common Cudweed, which although still common in our area is listed as Near Threatened.  At this point the group dropped to the two county recorders (Alan and Jonathan) who decided to take in some of the urban environment around the Sidgwick Site.  Notable here were lawns of Early Meadow-grass, which is Nationally Scarce.  Our final location was Sheep's Green, where we admired Purple Toothwort round the base of several willows.

2015 February 22  We arranged an additional winter walk to see what there was in some of the backstreets in our two monads.  The weather didn't co-operate with a cold wind when we met at 2pm, with rain moving in, so that we stopped unusually early at 3:30pm.  We did manage to investigate the streets around Fenners.  Whilst we didn't find anything astonishing, we did find a few plants that had managed to establish themselves in cracks in wall, such as a Passionflower, or had jumped from garden to gutter such as Erodium triflorum.  With rain getting heavier we decided to curtail the walk, but delayed long enough to confirm the presence of Mistletoe in a Lime tree, and discuss the differences between Crows and Jackdaws.

2015 January 1  Our first walk was in overcast and relatively mild conditions, but with a keen, biting wind that made it feel much colder.  Frosts earlier in the week had clearly impacted those plants actually in flower.  Our group of four met by the Mill sluice and walked through Sheep's Green.  Nothing much unusual was spotted until we came to the southern mill pond, where we found an alien bramble that Alan did not recognise.  Crossing Fen Causeway we spotted a couple of Little Egret and checked up on the two Cotoneasters growing in Willows, but these were the most interesting things we saw, so headed for Lammas Land for lunch.  After lunch, Paradise was anything but, with the track exceptionally muddy and with the invasive Floating Pennywort in the river, but David did his usual trick of unerringly locating us.  Crossing Coe Fen to New Bit we were at last able to make a significant boost to our total of flowering plants with additions particularly along the edge by the road and Leys wall.  Coe Fen proper did not produce much new and when we got back to our starting point our total of plants in flower was 29 - could we add another ?  The answer was yes, with Sagina filicaulis growing by the University Centre.  Despite another hour of daylight being available the party decided that it was too cold and windy and headed for home.

2005 December 31  I went for a final walk around to check on some missing common species that had been seen in most areas.  I did find a new, rather unwelcome, addition to  the list, finding the Harlequin ladybird on a buddleia at the end of Paradise.

2005 November 20  Mark Hill lead a party (Dave Seilly, Steve Hartley, Monica Frisch and Oliver Rackham) to survey mosses in the area.  Nothing exceptional was found, but the hard standing opposite the canoe club produced Brachythecium mildeanum (new for the 5-km square) and Drepanocladus aduncus (new for Coe Fen). The car park had Syntrichia latifolia, which has not been recorded from the Coe Fen area - according to BRC database - since 1960.

2005 October 16  A large party gathered for a fungal foray in Paradise and Coe Fen.  We found lots of interesting specimens in Paradise, including several scalycaps, an earth star, eyelash fungus, lots of different bracket fungi, and a slime mould "flowers of tan".  Coe Fen proved rather too dry, but the Vicars Brook area near the main road had the verdigris agaric, poisonpie, and lepiota aspera, and on the way back we found blackening waxcap.

2005 September 25  Jonathan, Lucy, Monica, Simon, ?? (sorry!) and Steve started with a walk round Paradise.  A couple of new flowers were found, but there were more fungi beginning to emerge.  We then had a quick look around the south end of Coe Fen to check on a rush, before wandering up Vicars Brook, where we found a selection of interesting fungi at the far end.

2005 August 18  Jonathan, Monica and Steve met and decided to investigate the ditches for flowering rush.  We didn't find any!  We also didn't find the yellow bartsia (Parentucellia viscosa), which I had found on Coe Fen at the end of July, and which turns out to be a new record for the county.  We did cross off some species previously overlooked from the ditches areas, and also found rough hawksbeard and alsike clover.  It was hot and thundery, but only a few spots of rain fell.  As dusk fell, biting insects emerged and the next day Jonathan had several tennis ball sized swellings.  

2005 July 26  Our walk took the form of a punt trip along the river, poking down a few backwaters.  We found quite a lot of water weeds, but weren't expert enough to identify all of them on the spot.  Arrowhead, Yellow water lily, Canadian pondweed and Nuttall's pondweed were all present and we also found galls of Pontania (a sawfly) on willow.

2005 June 16  We had thought conditions were ideal for surveying grasses, however the Council had cut most of the area.  Around half a dozen enthusiasts led by Charles Turner were able to find several new grasses and a couple of unusual trees.  Altogether we added 17 new species to the list.

2005 May 12  Our first evening walk of the year took us across Coe Fen to the Mill.  We added quite a few new grass and sedge species to the lists.  After a warming drink at the Mill we watched for bats across the mill pond, and heard soprano pipistrelle and Daubenton's bats.

2005 April 17  A canoe club meeting delayed our start whilst people found somewhere to park, but this gave time for some of our experts to arrive.  We started with an introduction to a few weeds growing by the Lammas Land swimming pool, and then progressed round Paradise, where we found an Orange ladybird, "Crown Imperial",  both sub-species of Celandine, red currant and black currant, Lycogala terrestre (a slime mould) and several butterflies.  We finished with a quick look round the Vicar's Brook area.  In total we added over 50 identifications to the list, with 13 new species of flowers.

2005 March 20  A large party started the walk, but we found so many things to look at that around half decided to progress at a brisker pace on what was a cool day with a strong breeze.  Highlights included finding wall rue and maidenhair spleenwort by the river, and confirming a rare casual Capsella rubella, which is similar to Shepherd's purse.  We also found some frogspawn in one of the ditches.  In total we added 16 new species to the list for the area.

2005 February 20  Our second walk took place in near Antarctic conditions with frequent snow showers.  We decided to make the most of the shelter offered by Paradise and explored the LNR.  We added around 20 flowering plants that had apparently not previously been recorded in the reserve, though many of these are quite common.  After the main walk concluded a few of us checked the purple toothwort growing on willow roots on a tree in Sheep's Green south of Fen Causeway, and I also found it on a couple of trees north of the road as well as in its traditional site of Robinson Crusoe Island.  I also found summer snowflake in flower here (noted since 1977), though it isn't supposed to flower until April.

2005 January 16  On our first walk we looked for purple toothwort on the southern part of Sheep's Green, then explored the island between the river and the southern part of Coe Fen.  We finished by looking at the area along Vicar's Brook up to the main road.  We found a variety of fungi, including a wood blewit, dead men's fingers and the myxomecete Lycogala terrestre on a stump.  We also found a new species for Cambridgeshire, Coprinus  romagnesianus, identified thanks to John Holden.  Callum found a huge variety of snails for us, including a door snail and a periwinkle shell.  We added 31 plants to the list.

2004 October 24  A planning visit to see the area and set up procedures for for the project.