Collecting Campions

Spreading the

Biodiversity!

Collecting Campions Sustainably from the wild.
1)Getting a good root ball and 2)not diminishing the local population are probably the 2 most important factors to be considered before choosing a clump, that looks like it can be thinned out a bit.
Select a thriving, tangled clump of campion and carefully dig up some that are maybe congested, within the clump. I just use my fingers, but a trowl would be more frequently recommended.

There is always a small hole left within the clump, from where the selected plants were taken, so best to find a bit of spare soil, which has say; fallen off the bank or onto the road or a Mole earth and gently fill in any holes. It is not good to leave any mess, bad practice or holes.
Collecting a good number of specimens of a species and from many different local sites; makes for a healthy and diverse gene pool. Especially since their new home is surrounded by so much moor that pollinating insects would have a job to cross it, so the plants up there will most probably have to interbreed. So if I get a good mix to Begin with; their long term future won't get hampered by weaknesses caused by too much inbreeding.In short, I want to set up healthy breeding colonies of as many suitable native plants as possible.

As shown on the picture on the above; a good sized root ball had been dug up with the plant, so it had much more chance of survival when transplanted and will settle in much fasted to it's new home.

I immediately transfer young plants to a damp plastic bag, to keep them moist, until I can plant them, which should be done as soon as possible and in a similar kind of habitat to where they were found.

Campions are what I would call an edge of woodland plant. They like clearings of edges of woods, not minding conifers too much.

They will not occupy grassland, in less there are trees nearby and they thrive in hedges, since there, the get the best of both worlds; sun light and organic material.

Campions form clumps quite fast, but have difficulty dispersing their seed very far. Sometimes collecting seeds and sprinkling them on some hedge-side mole hills or bare earth is a more efficient way of doing it.

Discovering a new moorland plant

New Plant

Today I broke down, because I put the wrong type of fuel in my bike.

I was naturally quite annoyed, because I had things to do and people to see, etc. But the right across the B3212, from where I had broken down; were these flowering plants, seen here to the right.

There were only 2 clumps of them, so there was no chance of me being able to justify transplanting any to other areas, until they had spread allot more, or in less I find a bigger clump somewhere else. But this site is about 300 metres above sea level, so they probably would survive and flourish further up, & in similar habitats. So perhaps I could collect some seed, when they form.

I cannot find my Keeble-Martin wild flower book, so identification will have to wait, but they have to be related to the dead nettles, I would say.

I like it when I see some plant that I have never seen before.

Incidentally; The AA took 5.5 hours to pick me up, so by that time my elation

from finding this plant had some what diminished.

In the shadow of Dartmoor Prison

So much unused land

Much of the land and valley directly behind Dartmoor prison is ungrazed and full of all manner of odd little stone bridges, an aqueduct and much wildlife. There is no fishing here and few tourists ever find it.

On the caption shown here on the right; you can clearly see the giant Colditz style fence, separating the land directly around the prison from my little trees.

Dartmoor Prison was built as a concentration camp to imprison (mostly) sailors, which we grabbed, presumably when retreating from the newly independent United States, during the American revolution. Also for Napoleon's men. Both have cemeteries on the grounds. I often think of those poor souls locked up in there today and their families, who have great difficulty getting here if they have to rely on public transport. I feel very strongly that only really dangerous people should be locked up and all should be offered help to improve their lives, instead they separate them from their families and label them for life.

Anyway hopefully my trees and plants will help begin to change the energies of this very elegant Gothic structure. It would make a wonderful hotel and out door pursuits centre.

Over the past few years, the prison has planted quite allot of native trees as well, often along the other side of the fence from my trees, which is very reassuring.

They have always been a bit "we know what you're doing, we like it, but there's too much red tape to say so." They certainly have never interfered in any way with my work.

On year 3 I was planting the valley behind the prison, when I noticed a prison warden in full get up, with 4 Alsatians. I stashed the trees and pertended to be looking at the river, as I normally do, but when he reached the nearest part of the footpath to where I was he asked me what I was doing. I gave my rehearsed blag. He said "We've been watching you for the past 3 years, we like what you're doing here!"

That's the only time I have ever really communicated with them. Since then the prison farm has closed and the Dutchy have rented the land, which surrounds my woods here, to this dreadful farmer (see pesky ponies).

CAMPIONS

Some other successes

Campions are one common species of native wild flower, which hasn't been able to breach the Moors to be able to grow up here, although it's much rarer cousin the Ragged Robbin grows here abundantly in a few choice ungrazed boggy areas.

A few colonies of Campion did exist up here prior to my arrival, but only in and around gardens, where people had obviously planted them. But it was clear from the colonies they had formed that they were quite able to cope with the harsher conditions up here.

As with many new species, I tried them in the garden first and after a few years, they too started to form colonies, so I began to plant them around hedges and wood/field edges around Dartmoor.

Over the years I have planted many of them and success had seemed limited, however this incorrect observation has led me to discover many vulnerabilities about this plant, for instance it can take a number of years to flower from seed & the seeds seldom make it very far from the mother plant & whilst they're not as bad as the wild daffodils at dispersing their seeds; the clumps do seem to spread very slowly and I would presume that this plant would find it difficult to spread to new areas it's self, in less directly connected to some form of suitable habitat. Which is of course, why they are not up here, on the top of Dartmoor, because they can not grow on the grazed moor, which completely surrounds these places.

The Aqueduct

The Aqueduct

There is a rickety old aqueduct running through the woods I call B woods, dividing middle B woods from Lower B woods.

In this area, as you can see; there are many existing Beech trees and between them are my trees. The clump of willow and birch to the left of the aqueduct, seen on the first picture, I planted on year 2.

Alongside the Aqueduct it's self is an equally rickety bridge, crossing over the fast flowing River Blackbrook, which joins the West Dart about 9 miles down stream. The leat it's self is 390 metres above sea level.

The aqueduct feeds water from the Blackbrook into an age old leat system, connecting other valleys and the leats themselves wind off for miles across the moors. They used to be used for transporting mined materials, before there were roads and railways.