Roy Vickery will be leading a plant walk on Tooting Common, London Borough of Wandsworth, on Wednesday 2 May, meet at the junction of Tooting Bec and Elmbourne Roads, about 10 minutes walk from Tooting Bec tube station, at 7.00 p.m.  On this, the first of a series of four walks arranged jointly by the Friends of Tooting Common and the South London Botanical Institute, we shall concentrate on the vegetation around the Amphibia Pools (formerly Reedbed, formerly Ecology Pond, and originally Boating Lake).  The other walks will be held on the evenings of 20 June and 9 July, and the afternoon of 19 August; see the Events page of this website for further details.  These events are free, but donations, to be shared between the FOTC and the SLBI, would be appreciated.  All welcome.

Report:  Only five people turned up, but we had an enjoyable 45 minutes wandering around the perimeter of the Amphibia Pools, where we examined some of the plants which were planted when this area was converted from a boating lake to an ‘ecology’ pond. Perhaps surprisingly these included a number of non-native species, including Japanese cheesewood, Pittosporum tobira (from China and Japan), Japanese rose, Rosa rugosa (from eastern Asia), and white-stemmed bramble, Rubus cockburnianus (from China).  We also examined a dog lichen (Peltigera sp.), which is thought to be the only terricolous (ground-growing) lichen on the Common.

Image: discussing bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus), © Carlos Bruzon.