Whorled caraway, Martin Mere

Whorled caraway is a rare plant in Lancashire, in fact Carum field which stretches from just outside the Janet Kear hide to the United Utilities hide, was for a long time the only place in Northern England where the plant was found. These days it's spread a little further than Carum field thanks to good habitat management on the reserve, but it's still confined to Martin Mere.

I've never seen it in flower before because it's not easy to see from any of the hides except distantly, but one of the advantages of doing surveys for Martin Mere is that you get out to parts of the reserve that you wouldn't normally reach. Today we happened to be on the edge of a field which was full of whorled caraway.

The plant gets it's English name from the leaves, while Carum field takes it's name from the scientific name of the plant which is Carum verticillatum. Prior to the Janet Kear hide there was another hide in the same location called Carum field hide. I find it slightly sad that a hide that enabled viewing of a rare plant should be replaced by a hide that no longer offers views of the plant but instead is really only useful for viewing birds on feeders largely for the benefit of photographers. There are lots of places where photographers can get shots of birds on feeders, but not many were you can view whorled caraway. That decision was taken years ago so not a reflection on the current management of the reserve. 

This juvenile tawny owl was in trees outside the Kingfisher hide.