Two events coming up next week:

Tuesday 15 April: Wild Flower Walk on Wandsworth Common, starting at 11 a.m.; booking essential. Fully booked.

Report:  15 April dawned wet, but as the old saying goes ‘rain before seven, fine before eleven’, so when 13 of us assembled at 11 o’clock the rain had stopped and it was warm, though it remained overcast.  We examined a variety of plants, including Italian alder (Alnus cordata), which is said to have been used for the piles on which Venice was built; star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), believed to have been introduced from southern Europe many years ago, but now thriving in the London area; and shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), a member of the Cabbage Family, Brassicaceae, all members of which are said to be edible.  It appears that participants enjoyed the event.

Thursday 17 April: Springtime Trees stroll, starting at the Woodfield Pavilion on Tooting Common, at 11 a.m., and including a visit to the Common’s colony of fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris); booking unnecessary.

Report:  Perhaps because it was Maundy Thursday, only two people turned up for this walk.  Never-the-less we enjoyed a sunny hour examining trees, including poplars (Populus spp.) and willows (Salix spp.), both of which are difficult to identify, and three species of maple (Acer) – field maple (A. campestre) which is native to Britain, silver maple (A. saccharinum), native to North America and probably planted on the Common in the 1890s, and sycamore (A. pseudoplatanus) thought to have been introduced from Europe late in the sixteenth century and now widely naturalized.

For further details see the Events page of this website.

Image: star-of-Bethlehem, Wandsworth Common, April 2025.