13th September 2012

Getting very autumnal with temps down to 4C last night. Not surprisingly only 6 moths in the trap: 2 Large Yellow Underwings, 2 Copper Underwings, an Angle Shades and a Setaceous Hebrew Character. I did catch a Green Carpet as it flew over the quadrangle of my department though!

Walking down to the shops, which is still a building site, I came across a new plant for Keele - Prickly Lettuce Lactuca serriola. When Eric Edees ( a local botanist) produced his Flora of Staffordshire in 1974 he noted only two old records of this plant in the whole county. Today it seems to be everywhere; certainly in towns and on waste ground, so it's not surprising it turned up here in what you can see is a very rough area!

Prickly Lettuce