Goldilocks and SanicleMonday 15th May 2000THIS AFTERNOON we visit another Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, the magnesian limestone gorge of Brockadale, which you get a brief glimpse of as you cross the flyover when travelling on the A1. In the meadow below we watch an Orange Tip butterfly flying near a group of Jack by the Hedge plants (also known as Hedge Garlic), the foodplant of its caterpillar. Growing nearby is Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, looking like a smaller version of the downy-leaved Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla mollis that we grow in the garden. For a moment I think there's an orange tip resting under its leaves, but it is an orange mould growing in a patch on the underside of the leaf. It's a hot day and the woodland comes as welcome shade. There are small drifts of Sanicle by the path and what looks like an undernourished buttercup; Goldilocks. It has only the smallest suggestion of petals - and those are uneven - around the flower.
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