Wednesday 10th September 2025 - Southbank, Blackwater GG #1047

 Terry's photos

Mark's photo

Our photographer, Terry, was photographed!!

‘Rinse and repeat’ was the theme of this week’s GG session.  We returned to Southbank in Blackwater for more Himalayan Balsam pulling.  This is a lovely site perfect for all sorts of flora and fauna.  The HB has been growing parallel to the river and at this time of the year is very obvious.  We didn’t have a threat of thunder and lightning this week so persevered through a downpour to the end of the session.

One of our GG team is very handy with her needle and has made some HB seed pouches from a discarded curtain.  These make the seed collection much easier.

There was a discussion about the alder trees growing on the site – see the description of ‘Wet Woodland’ taken from the Wildlife Trusts website:

Wet woodland is characterised by trees such as willows, birches and alder that thrive in poorly drained or seasonally flooded soils, such as in fens and bogs, pond and lakesides, river banks, and flushed hillsides. Wet woodland can, however, be quite varied in structure.

Wet woodland known as “carr” is often low-canopied, with willow and alder growing over a bulky ground layer of plants such as royal fern, yellow flag and meadowsweet. Along backwaters and in the loops of meandering rivers on floodplains, alders tend to grow taller and the rich silty soils support nettles and great willowherb.

Thanks to Terry for the photos, and to Mark for the photo of Terry!