Flora And Fauna

‘Goosey, Goosey, Gander, where can I wander?’ Around about this time of year this website gets several queries from people who will be visiting Dartmoor for thr first time and want to know exactly where they can or can’t walk. For example: “Hi, I wonder if you can help, we …

Now, before we start, I should just like to say to any governmental representative of Blair’s bunch that this is not an attempt to incite racial hatred. If in any way it’s deemed as such I would like to humbly apologise now as that was not the intention. BUT… the …

The Devil’s Herb was probably one of the most feared plants to grow in any cottage garden, today, parsley is one of the most common herbs used in cooking and nobody gives it a second thought. But why should such an innocuous plant have earned such an evil reputation? To …

It would appear that the way things are going on Dartmoor one could be forgiven for thinking they were in Longleat safari park. Firstly there were the reports of wild boar rampaging over the southern edges of the moor, then there was the stampeding bullock and now there was great …

“Well loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes, And for to drynken strong wyn, reed as blood”. Chaucer – Canterbury Tales The humble onion, at one time every moorland garden grew some sort or another, spring onions, shallots or cooking onions. As I child the kitchen garden was full of …

“From little acorns mighty oaks grow”, or as is the case on Dartmoor, “From little acorns oaks of all sizes grow”, from the dwarf oaks of Wistman’s Wood to the ancient ‘Royal Oak of Meavy‘. Normally one could say that many of the native trees do not occur on the …

‘Better than many more melodious singers, I love the monotonous music of the goatsucker. He has but two notes, and after sustaining the higher for thirty seconds or more, drops half a tone upon the lower and so concludes his burst of song. He loves the twilight, for his great …

“Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies ; And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Guard it I pray thee, with a lurking adder...”. William Shakespeare “You touch the hoky poky and you turn around”, ow that bloody hurts, meet the Dartmoor Urtica dioica, because hoky poky, along with …

“Through grass, through amber’d cornfields, our slow Stream– Fringed with its flags and reeds and rushes tall, And Meadowsweet, the chosen of them all By wandering children, yellow as the cream Of those great cows–winds on as in a dream By mill and footbridge, hamlet old and small (Red roofs, …

Upon this herbless rock a small grey Lichen Did fix her home She came with meek intent, to bless her stern and sterile place of rest; And presently her gentle sisters followed, Some vestal white, and some in robes of brown, And some in yellow vestures, labouring all At the …