Sentier Botanique revisited and Sentier Bucheron, Montréal

We went back to the forest in late April to see how it had changed from the previous visit in March. Lots happens in the spring and it's a botantical wonderland so everchanging. The sign below explains a lot about the area and the walks and trails in the Malepere hills, though it's in French of course!

I've zoomed in on the walk that we did - this time though we followed the Sentier Botanique and then went on to do the Sentier Bucheron, making about 6km in all. The explanation about this area explains that this is an important geographical area for flora, as the Atlantic influence from the Aquitaine basin meets the Mediterranean influence here in these hills, and within a stretch of about 5km there is both typical dry Mediterranean garrigue and typical woodland of the north, for example, of the Parisian area. Then there are all sorts of plants in between. Mostly my photos are of the garrigue area as this was a new trail for us.

At the beginning of the trails there is a sandy, rocky bank with typical garrigue plants - here the Grey-leaved Cistus (Cistus albidus) is flowering and there is also Kermes Oak, which is the low growing holly-leaved evergreen one. When we came back down the hill on the Bucheron trail we were following this bank with lots of garrigue plants as you will see later.

First, we started off following the botanical path that we followed in March. This time of course it was a lot more green.

There were still a few flowers hanging on which had been flowering in March (Cuckoo Flower and Pulmonaria) and you can see here some of the spotty leaves from Pulmonaria, but Bugle was the predominant flower in the verges of the track.

Below is Purple Gromwell (Lithospermum purpurocaeruleum). A few friends ID'd it for me using Pl@nt.net, which I need to start using myself. I've seen it used out in the field and it's a very handy tool to use.

We then veered off to the Bucheron path rather than coming back on the Botanique loop, as I was feeling strong enough to tackle a longer walk this time. There was a lot of uphill at the start of this trail though! I hadn't realised at the time but this area is planted up with American Red Oak, which should be a lovely colour in the autumn. At the very top of the hill there is a conifer plantation, but apart from that, all the rest of the forest is native species.

At the top of the bank Hawthorn was flowering, but I'm not sure of the shrub flowering below - a Viburnum maybe? EDIT: it's a Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana), thanks to Trev for the ID!

We started to come across patches of Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sangiuneum), which likes chalky soil with low nutritional value. It is common in coastal areas and thrives in limestone pavements. I'm always excited when I see plants that I have cultivated in my own gardens growing in their native habitat!

Woodland at the top of the slope and the chalky bank with the Bloody Cranesbill and a yellow flowering Broom at the bottom, amongst other plants.

There were a couple of places where the vegetation opened up to give a view of the mountains - unfortunately not terribly clear, but they often are covered in cloud or haze when everything else is really sunny! This view is looking in the general direction of Andorra, and out village is over there somewhere, just out of view.

A close up of the bank, showing a Broom of some sort and oak saplings pushing through the sandy rock, and a small Grey-leaved Cistus (Cistus albidus) bottom left.

Both Grey-leaved and Sage-leaved Cistus (Cistus salviifolius).

Sage-leaved Cistus (Cistus salviifolius).

I found the following plant interesting as there are no leaves at the base, just a stem coming straight out of the soil. I've just used Pl@nt.net for the first time and it tells me it is Pale Madwort (Alyssum alyssoides). It does have small yellow flowers at the tip later on, which might have helped me to recognise it as from the brassica family!

A Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis) appeared, saw us so moved a little way, then stopped, thinking it was out of our view. Cheers little lizard, we had a chance to take photos of you for a change!

Now this insect was the star of the day. There were a number of them flitting around the start of the walk where there were grassy verges, as there is arable land beside the start of the walks. We also walked a little way along an open path following the route of a small stream, listening to Nightingales singing from the trees beside the stream. We were accompanied by these Owlflies which flitted about and often stopped in the long grass. Owlflies are part of the same order, Neuroptera, as Lacewings, Antlions and Mantidflies; many of these are some very interesting looking creatures and are predatory.

Wow, is all I can say about it!!! 😀

I don't know if we will revisit the forest before summer, as we went there in July last year and know what it's like then (dry, few flowers, but still quite a lot of butterflies, predominantly Gatekeepers and Silver-washed Fritillaries). However we will certainly go back in the autumn so I'll update the blog about it then. 

Next post may take a while coming... we went on an amazing organised wildflower day out on Tuesday and I took over 200 photos!! Plus next week we have three trips with the same organisation, Birding Languedoc - this time it's back to its usual bird trips. Due to lockdown and bad weather they have ended up all being reorganised and the trips we picked just happen to all fall in one week!

Going back to the puddling buttterflies, I forgot about this little video that Keith took, so here is a link to it.

Take care and stay safe xx