Nick Johnson writes: We were visiting friends last Saturday [8 June] in a village near Hitchin called Pirton. About a mile from their house is a small reserve called Knocking Hoe which is in fact the last easterly knoll of the Chilterns with wonderful views eastwards. This is an account of our walk to and around Knocking Hoe.
On the way up we noticed a few oddities: one was Shepherds Needle, an unusual umbellifer which was on the edge of a field of oil seed rape which had finished flowering. Back on the path which was changing to the chalk of the Chilterns we found beautiful sky blue milkworts.
The concentration of wildflowers in this small reserve is unparalleled in England in my experience. In the space of a mile, there were five orchid species: common spotted, twayblade (which eluded us this time), pyramidal (just emerging) but the stars were the fragrant orchids and the burnt tip orchids. They were often growing side by side as above. We had it on the authority of a local expert who had been studying them for over 20 years, that there had never in his experience been a year like it for fragrant orchids: there were well over a thousand on the hill and we saw scores of burnt tips as well. We also saw what looked like a white pyramidal in the middle of the fragrant orchids. We sat down near them and listened to the skylarks and enjoyed the view.
On the way back, we took in other species: hounds tongue was just coming into flower, showy clustered bellflowers and the seed heads of many pasque flowers. However the rarest find was the moon carrot, Seseli libanotis. This delicate umbellifer was verified and marked
off by the local expert.
Nick Johnson, 10 June 2024
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB 