Three walks coming up, all in the London Borough of Lameth:

Friday 17 August, Plants for All, Ruskin Park, starting at 2 p.m.

Report:  This event was organised jointly by the Friends of Ruskin Park and South London Cares – http: southlondoncares.org.uk  – ‘a charity which connects older residents with young people’, consequently the majority of the participants were older people.  About an hour was spent walking around what was the bowling green, which then became flowerbeds and has since been rather neglected, enjoying (according to SLC website) ‘a magical afternoon sharing tales of floral love potions, botanical remedies and children’s games’.  Later we gathered at a local cafe and enjoyed tea and cakes while several people wrote down their plant-lore memories.  All in all and pleasant and successful afternoon; thanks to all involved and particularly Charlotte O’Connor  of FoRP, who did the initial planning.

Saturday 18 August, Summer Plant Walk, Spring Gardens, Vauxhall, starting at 2.30 p.m.

Report:  Eight people, four of them regulars, turned up at what looked like an unpromising, recently mown, site, but we were able to find sufficient plants, all of which were common, ‘everyday’, species, to keep us happily occupied for an hour. £30 was donated to SLBI funds.  Thank you.

Sunday 19 August, 4th Plant Walk on Tooting Common, starting at 2.30 p.m.

Report:  After a morning when rain threatened the weather had improved a great deal by the time about 12 people gathered for this walk which concentrated on a part of the Common which most of us rarely visit –  the strip of land between Emmanuel Road and the railway line, and the wooded belt south of the railway line.  We concentrated mostly on trees and examined three honey locusts  (Gleditschia triacanthos) and one of the trees which in a paper published in the London Naturalist in 2003 was considered to be one of London’s most noteworthy trees, a European white elm (Ulmus laevis) in front of  Drews Cottages. (The second noteworthy species, dotted hawthorn (Crataegus punctata), has never been refound).  Our final stop, after looking at trees all afternoon, was to examine lesser duckweed (Lemna minor) one of the world’s smallest flowering plants, which grows in water under and north of the railway bridge.                                                                                                  Update, 21 August 2018:  Following a re-examination of the area at the north end of Dr Johnson Avenue three dotted hawthorn trees (apparently the state tree of Missouri) were located.

Image:  lesser duckweed, growing under Bleak Lane Railway Bridge, Tooting Common, August 2018.