|
Braunton Burrows (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) (image)
Grid Ref: SS 462 351
Braunton is one of the largest sand dune habitats in Britain, owned by the Christie
Estates and part-leased to the MOD, it extends 6km from Saunton Down to the Taw and Torridge Estuary, north of Bideford, Devon. I spent just one day looking round in the summer of 2005 but could have spent a week there without any loss of interest, it is a fascinating place of huge proportion. If you've a fear of wide open spaces then this is not the best place to go wild flower spotting.
Knowing the area was so vast, and that there was so much to find and see I decided to leave Plymouth at 5.00am and so to give me as much time as possible for searching and photography. I soon found out that there was a difference between what I knew and how big the site really was for I must have walked over 12 miles that day, being barely able to drive home at the end of it. I intend to visit again in the summer of 2006 but this time I'm more prepared having purchased a mountain bike so I can access parts of the site more easily, as there is a track, not suitable for cars, that runs from north to south. I must add, it is important not to take a bike off the tracks and roads that run through or past the dunes as bikes can cause serious erosion and damage to the dunes.
Not knowing the area at all well, I decided to park my car in Sandy Lane Car Park and head straight for Flagpole Dune, and then straight across from Flagpole Dune to the sea in a westerly direction. I thought that was probably the best idea as I didn't want to get lost in he first few hours of getting there, and Flagpole Dune is visible from quite a
distance.
As soon as I got out the car I started noting the flora, as Sandy Lane Car Park has Horseradish running all across it, but on entering the dune system, wow, the first flowers I saw were Pyramidal Orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis), Southern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa), and then large areas of Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris), and along the path sides Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata) was in full bloom.
I must admit I was slightly prepared for what was in bloom, as the Botanical Society for the British Isles (BSBI) had an excursion to Braunton the previous Saturday and Sunday and I had a list of some twenty-five wildflower species that I wanted to see and photograph for this website. Although I knew finding twenty-five species, not knowing where to find them on the site was a very tall order. I knew the only way to do it was to keep
walking and keeping my eyes firmly on the ground, inspecting everything.
Walking across the site from east to west turned out to be a very good idea for the route took me across various different types of habitat across the site, these include, mobile dunes, dry dunes, dune slack, dune marsh, dune grassland and scrub, dune ponds, fore-dunes, and to the strandline above the high water mark, these areas containing a slightly varying flora. All these areas are well described in a book by Mary Breeds entitled Wildflowers of Braunton Burrows. Published in 2004, and available at Sandy Lane Car Park, I think I paid £5.00 for the book, but the money was well spent, as the book is well written, very informative, and a good reminder of a great day.
Cutting across the site in this way lead me to come across many of the plants the site is well known for and these include Early Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp. coccinea), Sea Stock (Matthiola sinuata), Blue Fleabane (Erigeron acer), Sand Toadflax (Linaria arenaria), Sand Pansy (Viola tricolor subsp. curtisii), Round-leaved Wintergreen (Pyrola rotundifolia), Pink Water Speedwell (Veronica catenata) and Knotted Pearlwort (Sagina nodosa), so on getting back to the car for dinner I was well pleased with how the morning had gone. However, it wasn't only these rarer species that enthralled me, I found many interesting forms of more commoner species, such as the white forms of Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense), Lesser Centaury (Centaurium erythraea), and Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus).
On getting back to the car I was very fortunate to bump into and chat to John Breeds, the warden. Here I consider myself very fortunate and must thank John for his help for he presented me with a dune map and marked on it my plant quarry for the afternoon walk. Now knowing where I was going was a great help, even though it was a bit of a struggle trying to understand a dune map for the very first time.
One of the plants I really wanted to see was the Adder's-tongue Fern, and I knew roughly where it was, and was in the right area but didn't see any at all. I was about to move on, when I saw Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula), a common species but the flower was in absolutely perfect condition, and well worth a photo. I bent down only to spot a very rare plant beside it, the Variegated Horsetail (Equisetum variegatum); and that was one I did not expect to see at all, in comparison it is probably equal to finding the needle in the haystack.
Moving on following the main track south I passed colonies of Soapwort (Saponaria
officinalis) before heading to an area called Pebble Slack to look for Fragrant orchid, and then on to Broadsands Car Park to look for White Horehound (Marrubium vulgare). Sadly I was too early in the year to see Fragrant Orchid but I did find non-flowering plants of Autumn Gentian (Gentiana amarella) around the Pebble Slack area, and easily found White Horehound at the car park.
In all it was a fantastic day out, very satisfying but also very tiring, the Burrows are featured here for there shear size and beauty. Quite an amazing place, a credit to both Christie Estates and those that help manage it. Parts of the area are in use by the MOD, so please, for your safety, do not
enter the dunes when the red flags are flying.
BACK
|
|
