Thursday 18 July:  Summer Plant Hunt: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Wandle Park, Colliers Wood, London Borough of Merton, starting at 7.00 p.m.  For further details see the Events page on this website.

Report:  Seven people turned up to enjoy a perfect summer’s evening strolling around this little known south London Park and discussing some of the plants found there.  These included floating pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, from North America introduced as an aquarium plant and since 1990 becoming increasingly invasive in British rivers and lakes, and Indian balsam, Impatiens glandulifera, introduced from the Himalayas in the late 1830s,  first recorded in the wild in Britain about 20 years later, and now considered to be invasive.  Less worrying is pineapple weed, Matricaria discoidea, possibly native to northern Asia, and first cultivated in Britain in the 178os and first recorded in the wild about 90 years later.  Other plants discussed included stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, and bramble, Rubus fruticosus agg., both of which, although native, can be considered to be invasive, forcing out less vigorous species.

‘All sorts of fascinating plant-lore.’