in the business park 2

Three plants that crop up on the extended paved areas that are used for parking. Photos from the beginning of June, 2015.

Above and below, Thyme-leaved Sandwort (Arenaria serpyllifolia) - probably ssp. leptocladus, though I need fruits to confirm.





You need to go to the back of the car-park to find this. It only likes the parking-spaces that nobody ever parks in.

Rat's-tail Fescue (Vulpia myuros). Springs up in paving cracks (often just a single spike). This, however, is a more robust plant from the edge of the car-park. The panicles are long and drooping (e.g compared to Squirreltail Fescue, V. bromoides) and the lower glume is typically 25-40% length of upper glume, whereas in V. bromoides the lower glume is >50% length of upper glume.

Here's more info than you probably want about it:  http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/117880 (from the Invasive Species Compendium).

[CABI is a not-for-profit organization for agricultural and environmental research and data. It developed from the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, who originally studied tropical pests. Now a major source of global data on species of interest to agriculture and conservation.]

Rat's-tail Fescue is considered by BRC an archaeophyte (ancient introduction) rather than a native plant, but that's hard to be certain about. Like other Vulpia species, it has become noticeably more widespread in the past fifty years. This is the most common Vulpia species in urban environments.

The two photos below show the panicle, which can look one-sided from certain angles. Sometimes, as here, the spikelets stand proud from the main stem and stick out like the teeth on a comb.

Dewy morning: a pure sward of Vulpia myuros on recently disturbed ground 

Small Toadflax (Chaenorhinum minus) by a kerbside. A pretty plant when seen in close-up, but easily overlooked because it's so small.

In the business park 1