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Mountain pansies face the sun, as the air is all heat and light Mountain pansies face the sun, as the air is all heat and light
(2 months later)
High up the East Allen valley the river is now so low that its sound is sunken deep, the water hidden below banks of waving grasses. The air is all heat and light, burning my skin as I walk on the thyme-sprigged turf. To survive such a drought as well as soggy winter wet, the flora occupies a precise niche. Not only that, it must cope with the residues of lead mining, the principle industry at Allenheads for more than 200 years. Here, downstream from the site of a smelt mill, a band of calaminarian, or metal-rich soil, runs parallel to the river.High up the East Allen valley the river is now so low that its sound is sunken deep, the water hidden below banks of waving grasses. The air is all heat and light, burning my skin as I walk on the thyme-sprigged turf. To survive such a drought as well as soggy winter wet, the flora occupies a precise niche. Not only that, it must cope with the residues of lead mining, the principle industry at Allenheads for more than 200 years. Here, downstream from the site of a smelt mill, a band of calaminarian, or metal-rich soil, runs parallel to the river.
Botanist Lizzie Maddison surveyed this area last year, with the help of volunteers, so that it qualified for local site status. Zigzagging across the site, taking random species samples, they studied a series of 1.8m quadrats, sending the records to the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. The main indicator for this particular calaminarian soil is spring sandwort, backed up by mountain pansy, wild thyme and fairy flax – names that conjure this untamed grassland. In winter there is a desolate beauty to the place; by July it has transformed into a flowery mead. Even the grasses are delicate: wavy hair grass, quaking grass and fescue. Rabbits keep the sward low.Botanist Lizzie Maddison surveyed this area last year, with the help of volunteers, so that it qualified for local site status. Zigzagging across the site, taking random species samples, they studied a series of 1.8m quadrats, sending the records to the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. The main indicator for this particular calaminarian soil is spring sandwort, backed up by mountain pansy, wild thyme and fairy flax – names that conjure this untamed grassland. In winter there is a desolate beauty to the place; by July it has transformed into a flowery mead. Even the grasses are delicate: wavy hair grass, quaking grass and fescue. Rabbits keep the sward low.
Searching through old maps, Lizzie found a name for this narrow strip of land: Bell's Grooves. Perhaps a mining name, functional but with its own poetry. Lines of spoil have left faint traces over the underlying limestone, with more metals being washed down by floodwaters. In the damper places are northern marsh orchids, glamorously purple and showy. The rarities are much more discreet; the leaves of adder's tongue, a primitive fern, are hard to spot. Frog orchids, red-tinged green, are camouflaged among the grasses.Searching through old maps, Lizzie found a name for this narrow strip of land: Bell's Grooves. Perhaps a mining name, functional but with its own poetry. Lines of spoil have left faint traces over the underlying limestone, with more metals being washed down by floodwaters. In the damper places are northern marsh orchids, glamorously purple and showy. The rarities are much more discreet; the leaves of adder's tongue, a primitive fern, are hard to spot. Frog orchids, red-tinged green, are camouflaged among the grasses.
There is no shade on this open riparian land. The mountain pansies turn their faces to the sun, while common blue and small heath butterflies jig about between the yellow daisies of rough hawkbit. Peewits cry searchingly overhead but little else moves in the simmering heat.There is no shade on this open riparian land. The mountain pansies turn their faces to the sun, while common blue and small heath butterflies jig about between the yellow daisies of rough hawkbit. Peewits cry searchingly overhead but little else moves in the simmering heat.
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