It is midway through February and it looks like spring has nearly arrived, or at least the worst of the winter has passed. I walked the Bray to Greystones cliff walk last week for the first time and made a list of interesting plants I came across. On the walk there are various habitats, from beach, to cliff faces, walls, peatland and farmland. I mainly took note of the plants on the cliff edges and any plants that were flowering.
As I climbed halfway up Bray head, I came across my first flowering plant this year, Lesser Celandine. This flowers from December onwards so it is not unusual to be flowering now. It can be recognised by its bright yellow flowers and heart-shaped nearly variegated leaves.
Just across from the lesser celandine I found the very recognisable glossy, arrow-shaped Lords-and-ladies leaves coming up.
The walk passes underneath steep rock faces. One of the plants that loves growing on cliffs is Navelwort. It has distinct leathery round leaves with a dip or ‘navel’ in the middle, where the leaf stalk attaches to the leaf. You can see the old flower-heads still attached above the plant.
The first seaside plant I came across was Sea Campion. It is a species that likes to grow on cliffs and usually flowers between June and August, so it was unexpected to see it flowering at this time of year. Like many seaside plants, it has grey-green, fleshy leaves to prevent dehydration from the salty sea air. The flowers are pure white with a swollen petal-tube with reddish veins.
Bray head is covered in gorse flowers in early spring, there is so much of it that patches of Bray Head look yellow from Bray town during the summer. However, the past few summers Bray Head has seen some large gorse fires, which have left many patches of Bray Head bare. Gorse is very resilient and usually recovers the next year. It can be seen flowering nearly all year round, with flowering peaking in spring and summer, when the pea-shaped-flowers fill the air with a vanilla-coconut fragrance that always reminds me of Bounty bars. The flowers make a lovely cordial.
There aren’t many trees on Bray head. One of the few I came across was this Scots Pine. It has been shaped by many years of sea wind. Scots Pine can be found on bog-land and many exposed sites around the country. The needles are blue-green, with longer needles on younger trees than older trees. The bark on older trees is reddish-brown. You can see the black burnt soil on the hill behind the tree where the gorse fires happened.
As I came to the Greystones side of the walk the scenery changed and the land levelled out with less cliffs and more farmland. On one of the stone walls I found an unexpected plant; Barren Strawberry. It usually grows on woodland floors or grassy areas, but this stone wall had many Barren Strawberry plants growing on it. The Barren Strawberry looks similar to the Wild Strawberry, but it has the following characteristics to tell it apart; its leaves are quiet hairy, with the end tooth on the middle leaflet being shorter than the ones on either side; as the name suggests, the fruits never grow into a red berry, but grows into a dry brown inedible berry instead. The white flowers can be seen from March to May, with petals with wide gaps between them.
The second last plant I noted was Alexanders. Unlike the previously mentioned plants, which are all natives, this plant was introduced into Ireland and is mainly found around the East Coast. However, it has been in Ireland for such a long time that it is considered to be native. It was introduce before the 16th century and grown in monasteries as a vegetable until it was replaced by celery. If you crush the leaf, you get a strong smell of celery from it. The young stems are edible when cooked (you can find great recipes online), but I haven’t tried them yet. The shiny, pale green leaves appear in late winter, followed by green-yellow flower heads in early spring.
The last plant I noted on the walk was Colt’s-Foot, a relative of the dandelion, which can be easily distinguished by its little sheaths or bracts which can be seen along the stem, whereas dandelion has smooth stems.
I will end with a few photos of the scenery along the Bray-Greystones cliff walk. It is well worth walking it, whether it is to see the plants along the way or to enjoy the breath-taking scenery. If you have any photos or additions to this list, let me know. I hope to write an updated summer or autumn list in the near future.
Wildflower Walks Ireland 