2023 County Report for Huntingdonshire

Pat Doody

As a newly appointed VC Recorder I have little to report for 2023. On a personal note, I led two guided walks to Portholme Meadow and Brampton Wood for their spring flowers. I also began collating 30 years of records from Brampton Parish in VC 31. A survey of Butomus umbellatus and Sagittaria sagittifolia along the River Great Ouse and a tributary, Alconbury Brook, more than doubled the number of locations for these species in the Parish.

I joined a small group from the Huntingdon Fauna & Flora Society to survey meadows on Abbots Ripton Estate in August. I also surveyed a number of protected road verges in the north of the VC, a contribution to a reveiw being carried out by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire.

Portulaca oleracea (Common Purslane)

Owen Mountford reports TL243847, growing on the poached edge of a grass verge Chapel Road, Ramsey Heights. Probably only the third record in VC 31.