Rare Wildflowers on Berry Head and Devon Heath Fritillaries

Back in late May we visited Berry Head to see some of its rarer wild flowers after having been rather too late last year when we visited. We saw everything we were looking for except Small Hare's-ear which we were too early for this time. However we went back last Sunday and found lots of it both in one of the spots we'd looked at earlier and in a new location passed onto me via a contact on Twitter. This is a tiny plant and very difficult to see and it is also very rare growing only here and Beachy Head in East Sussex.The other flowers were White Rock Rose, Small Restharrow, Honewort and Dwarf Mouse-ear. We also found a beautiful salmon pink Scarlet Pimpernel. After our May visit we drove over to the west side of Dartmoor to look for Heath Fritillaries on a Butterfly Conservation Reserve. There were lots on the wing and the very first one we saw was a stunning aberration too! We also saw a few Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and Small-pearl-bordered Fritillaries here.

White Rock Rose -  Helianthemum apenninum

Double flowered White Rock Rose

Honewort - Trinia glauca

Small Restharrow - Ononis reclinata

Small Hare's-ear - Bupleurum baldense

It's very small and if you can't picture just how small from these photos...

...Here's one with a polo mint for scale. See it's tiny!

   

Dwarf Mouse-ear - Cerastium pumilum 

  

Scarlet Pimpernel - Anagallis arvensis

Aberrant Heath Fritillary - Melitaea athalia ab. corythalia

Heath Fritillary - Melitaea athalia

(Bog-standard version) 

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Boloria selene 

Very fresh with a still crumpled wing. 

Bastard Balm - Melittis melissophyllum