Corky-fruited Water-dropwort (Oenanthe pimpinelloides)

4th July 2012: Corky-fruited Water-dropwort (Oenanthe pimpinelloides) in flower. Note the relatively showy barren flowers around the edge of each umbellule. 

Above, umbel with flowers fading. The sturdy, straight spokes are distinctive. 

Stems and leaves. 

24th July 2012. Time to take a look at how the fruits are getting on. 

7th August 2012.  Below: fruits starting to colour. 

Below, a late umbel. You can see that the outer umbellules have not succeeded in forming fruit. 

24th September 2012. A wet day - the fruits have now turned brown. 

29th October 2012. Dispersal. 

Photo of the fruits just before they fall off. When they do, they expose the corky bases that give the plant its name.

This plant was growing in neglected grassland outside an unoccupied building in a Swindon business park. It's the only one I've found around here, but I've watched it for the last three years. It turns out that this location is quite a long way from any of the records in the 1993 Wiltshire Flora. Corky-Fruited Water-Dropwort seems to be extending its range. It used to be strangely restricted to an area of southern England centring on Dorset, Somerset, and the lower Severn in Gloucestershire. In Frome, 40 miles to the SW of Swindon, it is a common species.

Frome, 12th January 2019

Frome, 6th May 2019

And if you can bear it here's even more pics, this time from June.

fjällstormhatt

You can't understand. There's a
(21)                  peaceable remark in the
                              boreal forest,
& the remark is space all around --
             -- all around me --  kind of big country.
Climbing an elk-shooting platform,
             well that's another thing.
The hunters splashed the "fell-storm
             -hat" with their pissing, it nodded on its stem.
The forest is a slot machine,
            maximum payout £70.
The big green leaves splashed by
             another astonishing waterfall,
& it was raining too, up towards
                                           the fells
a few years ago. We got waffles
                       later in the shop,
and I was so happy along with Mum & Dad
      that I forgot the forest remark, until now.
"Exploring Nature's playground" says the
                         Peter Storm t-shirt.
Yes Peter you had that about right. There
           are several isotopes,
a thousand maybe -- most are so
     long, we only know them by their
                preambles. I do just want to play and hear the songs.
The mottled clouds of today are desperate!