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| Tough little plants surface briefly on the lake's retreating edge | Tough little plants surface briefly on the lake's retreating edge |
| (5 months later) | |
| Chew Valley Lake, Somerset Redshank, mud-wort, cudweed and crowfoot – their names are peasant-simple – rise from the mud like miniature Grendels | |
| Dawn Lawrence | |
| Fri 1 Sep 2017 05.30 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 17.41 GMT | |
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| The lake in late summer is brimming with life. Swallows and martins sweep through rafts of duck, coot and gulls, sometimes dipping to sip flies from the surface. The shoreline is lush with plants and wet with drizzle. We push through shoulder-high bushes of water mint and spires of gypsywort and golden dock. | The lake in late summer is brimming with life. Swallows and martins sweep through rafts of duck, coot and gulls, sometimes dipping to sip flies from the surface. The shoreline is lush with plants and wet with drizzle. We push through shoulder-high bushes of water mint and spires of gypsywort and golden dock. |
| This is the seasonal outburst of the inundation community, the plants that spring up on the mud of the lake edge. The vegetation may have a grand title but the plants themselves have earthy, Old English names, mud-savoury and peasant-simple. | This is the seasonal outburst of the inundation community, the plants that spring up on the mud of the lake edge. The vegetation may have a grand title but the plants themselves have earthy, Old English names, mud-savoury and peasant-simple. |
| Redshank, mud-wort, cudweed, crowfoot; they rise from the mud like miniature Grendels, stalking across the swamplands as the lake retreats. | Redshank, mud-wort, cudweed, crowfoot; they rise from the mud like miniature Grendels, stalking across the swamplands as the lake retreats. |
| Further in, and knee-high, sweet-scented corn mint gives way to the lower zone where the mud is still mucky and the plants are just surfacing. We drop to our knees, disregarding our clothing, to examine the inch-high smear of greenery. | Further in, and knee-high, sweet-scented corn mint gives way to the lower zone where the mud is still mucky and the plants are just surfacing. We drop to our knees, disregarding our clothing, to examine the inch-high smear of greenery. |
| It is lively with spiders and beetles, racing through the tiny leaves like deer running through a forest. At last we capture a copper peacock beetle, Elaphrus cupreus, which is not as showy as the name suggests. But with a lens we can see the “eyes” pargetted into its dun-coloured wing cases. | It is lively with spiders and beetles, racing through the tiny leaves like deer running through a forest. At last we capture a copper peacock beetle, Elaphrus cupreus, which is not as showy as the name suggests. But with a lens we can see the “eyes” pargetted into its dun-coloured wing cases. |
| One of the commonest plants is slender mugwort, feather-leaved and pungent, which arrived from north America about 60 years ago, prompting wild speculation that it could have arrived on the feet of a vagrant bird. Scattered between the green fronds, dainty rosettes of the liverwort Riccia cavernosa, hug the mud. | One of the commonest plants is slender mugwort, feather-leaved and pungent, which arrived from north America about 60 years ago, prompting wild speculation that it could have arrived on the feet of a vagrant bird. Scattered between the green fronds, dainty rosettes of the liverwort Riccia cavernosa, hug the mud. |
| But my favourite is trifid bur-marigold. The amusing name refers to its divided leaves, not its appetite, but I am also fond of the way it decorates your shoelaces with burrs that stick like hedgehogs in a football net. These tough little plants have to grow and set seed in a single summer; once the autumn rains come the lake will take back the mud and they will sink back into the depths, their seeds providing food for the dabbling ducks. | But my favourite is trifid bur-marigold. The amusing name refers to its divided leaves, not its appetite, but I am also fond of the way it decorates your shoelaces with burrs that stick like hedgehogs in a football net. These tough little plants have to grow and set seed in a single summer; once the autumn rains come the lake will take back the mud and they will sink back into the depths, their seeds providing food for the dabbling ducks. |
| Lake-side and river muds and stones are the likely original habitat for some of our arable weeds. Their rushed life-cycle in these temporary habitats is adapted to the relentless plough. | Lake-side and river muds and stones are the likely original habitat for some of our arable weeds. Their rushed life-cycle in these temporary habitats is adapted to the relentless plough. |
| Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary |
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