Foxglove and Frog

Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary,  Monday,  1st June 2009

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AS I DRAW the foxglove amongst the periwinkle, buttercup and hogweed leaves by the pond, a frog makes its way across the pond pausing to rest on the leaves of floating pennywort.

Floating pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, is a North American plant, first recorded in this country in 1990. It’s spread along the canal in great rafts with white spaghetti-like roots hanging below it. Narrowboat people tell me that when it drifts into a lock it’s difficult to move the gates because of the plant’s bulk and weight.

I need to clear it from my pond and replace it with a native floating plant such as frogbit.

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