Breckland

In June 1998 I organised an expedition to Breckland to collect Breckland thyme.  This was arranged in association with my colleague, Graham Walters of the Alpine Unit at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is now known as the Easter Easter Leonard Walters expedition.  (My husband, who did the driving, is the second Easter in the expedition.)

Breckland is an area of sandy heathland, with a very low annual rainfall, on the Norfolk Suffolk borders around Thetford and Mildenhall.  It is also home to RAF and USAF airbases and much of it is covered in conifer plantations.

The majority of Breckland thyme grows in SSSIs, most of which are privately owned.  Permission had to be obtained from the landowner and from English Nature.  Two of the sites are also nesting sites for stone curlews, so permission had to be obtained from the RSPB and access was limited to a maximum of twenty minutes for each of these sites.  The birds fly off their nests as soon as a vehicle arrives, but take no notice of the constant sounds of fighter aircraft taking off, low flying and landing!  I also had to liaise with the Breckland botanist, Yvonne Leonard, who escorted us around the various sites.

All the sites are rabbit grazed and the soil is very sandy.  Most of the thymes were T. serpyllum but in some sites there was also T. polytrichus subsp. britannicus.  Detailed notes were taken of the other plants growing at each site, an accurate record was made of the position using GPS and photographs were taken of the sites and also close ups of the plants.  The team had to work very fast in the stone curlew nesting areas!  Yvonne Leonard gave permission for us to collect roots, so sufficient material was taken for the National Plant Collections^® and for Kew.  We found a vast range of colours of T. polytrichus subsp. britannicus.

The plants are now being bulked up and in due course will be used in the DNA studies to determine whether there are any links between the two species.  The T. serpyllum we collected can be seen growing on the rock garden at Kew.

To see an enlarged version of a picture click on the relevant picture.

Thymus serpyllum growing in bare sandy soil at Rampart's Field, Icklingham, Suffolk	Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus at Deadman's Grave, Icklingham, Suffolk
Thymus serpyllum growing in Dr. Watt's  Soil Profile Trench, Lakenheath Warren, Suffolk	Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus   growing in the bridle path at Lakenheath Warren, Suffolk
Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus growing on the edge of the bridle path at Lakenheath Warren, Suffolk	Detail of Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus growing on the edge of the bridle path

Thetford Warren Lodge, Norfolk
	A large area of Thymus serpyllum about; 1 metre across growing with lichen in sandy soil at Thetford Warren Lodge, Norfolk.
	Detail of Thymus serpyllum at Thetford Warren Lodge.  This site had the most extreme conditions of all those we visited. Apart from the bushes alongside the road, practically the only vegetation other than Breckland thyme was the large quantity of lichen species.
Photographs © 1998,  Mrs. Margaret Easter, no copying or reproduction permitted