Cheddar Pink in Cheddar Gorge

Today I finally achieved one of my life long ambitions and saw Cheddar Pink growing in it's classic location, Cheddar Gorge in Somerset. In the UK this plant occurs only in Somerset with Cheddar Gorge far and away the main site, but it does also occur elsewhere in Europe I believe, especially in the Alps. Just like all pinks, it has a wonderful scent. From what I have read, whilst still common here, it has declined considerably since it was first discovered in the early part of the 18th century, in part due to scrub encroachment and people picking the flowers. 

I first learned of the plant and the gorge from my dad when I was a lad, though he never visited the place and so didn't see the plant in the wild, yet seeing it today feels like a link to the past and I can feel the connection with my dad again. It's taken me so long to see it because like my dad, my main interest when it comes to botany is alpine plants, so my natural inclination is to head north to Cumbria, Teesdale, Yorkshire and Scotland or west into Wales. Somerset is a county that I have only visited on a handful of occasions and in those instances usually to one of the counties wonderful bird reserves and not necessarily at the right time of year for the pink and certainly not with likeminded travelling companions who would be prepared to climb to the top of the gorge and spend half a day botanising. However, just at the moment I am working in Somerset and with my surveys finishing at 11am latest everyday, I have plenty of free time and ample opportunity to call in.

There are lots of other great plants here as well, including Cheddar hawkweed Hieracium stenolepiforme, an even rarer plant that occurs nowhere else in the world. I believe that the last survey found that it had declined with just 50+ plants left. The plant in the photo above was growing on the cliff near Sows Hole down at the bottom of the gorge. Hawkweeds are notoriously difficult, but in this instance the identification has been confirmed by the Somerset Rare Plant Group (opens in a new window). Key features are the the toothed leaves, obvious particularly on the back leaves in the photo, the lack of leaves on the stem and the simple hairs on the bracts. Plus the location of course, with Sows Hole one of the known locations of the species within the gorge.

Common rockrose.

Rock stonecrop with lesser meadow-rue top right.

There are apparently three endemic species of whitebeam in the gorge and these may well be one (or two) of them, but I wouldn't know where to start with these, if it's even possible to identify them in the field. Whitebeam is the tree equivalent of the hawkweeds, everywhere seems to have its own species!

Broomrape.

Cheddar Gorge is a tourist attraction and the village below is quite commercialised, but once you get away from the village and onto the walks you can quickly get away from people and the associated tat and it is a very spectacular place.

In the 1970's a wallcreeper overwintered here for two consecutive years. You can see why!