OUT AND ABOUT ON LEVIN DOWN AGAIN
with Rosemary Staples
Flowers!
It
is all about flowers this time. The south slope of Levin Down is packed
with them. The rain we have been having lately has done one good thing -
it has made the hill really green and verdant. Usually by now the grass
would be brown and the turf dry and crumbling, but not this year. To
start with there are the wonderful grasses on the pasture above the
village before you get to the reserve. There are masses of different
ones, some pink and feathery, others like little bottle brushes with
violet coloured whiskers and silky blond ones, just like the tails of a
pack of beagle dogs waving in the wind. There is rather a lot of ragwort
here, but that is Goodwood's problem not the SWT's. Once through the
gates you will be hard pushed to pick out all the different varieties of
wild flowers. There is marjoram, pinky-mauve - wonderful smell when you
crush it in your hand - knapweed, purple, very like the thistle flowers,
then there are the thistle flowers - lots of them, and there is bartsia,
rather unusual with a pink flower. Next comes one of my favourites -
vervain - such a delicate spire of tiny lilac flowers. There is lots of
this as well - standing quite tall all along the path. Now we have a
parasitic plant, growing on the roots of others - this is dodder - a
funny old name, but not so funny as another favourite [well, they all
are really] squinancywort, a huge name for such a tiny flower. It comes
in white and pale pink, scattered about on the short turf, with
eye-bright here and there amongst it. You really do need to get up close
and personal with these little chaps. It is well worth it. Bell flowers
are also abundant, clumps of cluster bellflowers are alongside the
path and the larger, taller nettle-leaved bellflowers grow under the
shade of the big trees. And dotted among the short grasses are the
harebells, nodding in the breeze. You can almost imagine you can hear
them ringing. Another blue flower is the scabious, not so plentiful but
very lovely, and of course self-heal - that is everywhere. We have had
mostly pink, white and blue, but for a change there are large patches of
horseshoe vetch, gold and orange, very colourful, and hypericum, very
yellow, ladies bedstraw, white and yellow, then there is basil, pink
again, except when it is white, with furry leaves. And last but not
least moon daisies, very white with a golden centre. What a feast for
the eyes. Are we not extremely lucky to have all this for free? See you
up there.