New Year Plant Hunt 2025 - Uckfield North

I introduced last year's account of the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt by saying "Recently the weather has been very wet, turning many little weedy plants that were hanging on from the summer to mush." It has been exactly the same this year and the results were quite similar - I got 35 species compared to 36 last year.

Sometimes the number of species found doesn't tell the whole story. For some species that I usually expect to find easily, I had to search really hard to find one or two blooms. For example: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Ivy (Hedera helix) and Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum).

A battered Herb Bennet (Geum Urbanum)

My first find, on the public path just outside our hedge was a very miserable Herb Bennet (Geum Urbanum). Then the usual "weeds" - a lot of Daisies (Bellis perennis) and the odd Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) etc. A quick visit to the Winter Heliotropes (Petasites fragrans) near Ringles Cross showed that there were far fewer of the pink fluffy flowers than last year.

Yellow Corydalis (Corydalis lutea) at Holy Cross

I meandered through the town to the church and found a lovely group of Yellow Corydalis (Corydalis lutea) on the Holy Cross Church wall.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

The Holly (Ilex aquifolium) in Belmont road had a lovely scattering of dainty white flowers. The Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) was a little trickier - there were quite a few flowerheads with buds but the one open flower took a lot of finding.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) at the Fire Station

Another usually reliable New Year flower that was hard to find was Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). I found a rather scrappy specimen outside the fire station.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus) on Bellbrook Industrial Estate

The Bellbrook Industrial Estate gave me Gorse (Ulex europaeus) and some battered little weeds. 

White Melilot (Melitotus Albus)

Back in November, I found a White Melilot (Melitotus Albus) flowering in the Station car park. It seemed impossible to believe that it's delicate white pea flowers would still be blooming but they were.

White Deadnettle (Lamium album) at the Mill

On the other side of the road, I found some White Deadnettle (Lamium album) while a friendly German Shepherd investigated my bags.

The last Ivy (Hedera helix) flowers in town

Down to my last half-hour, I scurried home, conscious that I had not seen any Ivy (Hedera helix) flowers - there had been plenty of fruit on the plants round the town but not a single flower. I examined the Ivy at the top of the Dene, while discussing the plant hunt with a neighbour. I checked about three quarters of the heads when I found one that was still blooming. After this, I headed home for a much needed hot coffee.

At the time of writing:

• the Uckfield results are available from Uckfield
• all results are available from Results.