Photograph Notes: Dwarf Cornel is one of the local rarities of the Cheviot Hills. It is a member of a relict �arctic alpine� flora that has survived in a few patches within the hills. It has an unusual distribution in the British Isles, having only a few sites in Northern England and the Scottish Borders, and is much more frequently encountered in the Scottish Highlands ://brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/index.php?q=plant/cornus-suecica It was first discovered on Cheviot sometime before 1568 by Dr Thomas Penny ://en.wikisource/wiki/Penny,_Thomas_%28DNB00%29 then 100 years later by John Ray ://en.wikipedia/wiki/John_Ray in June 1671. It was re-discovered by Dr. George Johnston in 1828 (Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed) after which it was said 'the hill became classical ground to the botanist'. I have looked for it on several occasions by the head of the College Burn, above the Hen Hole, where it was recorded as growing among bilberry above 600m on the north-facing slopes. It was first recorded from this location by G A Swan in September 1949. 'At 1,850 feet .... I observed a colony of this plant about 2 yards across. No plant was fruiting. So far as I know the species has not been previously recorded from this side of Cheviot' (The Vasculum Vol 34 No 4 December 1949). It is a low-growing creeping perennial of wet, acidic peat soils at moderate to high altitudes, including areas of late snow-lie. When flowering, an umbel of small dark-coloured flowers are clustered above four large white, petal-like bracts [[869373]] It later bears red berries. I could only find a few plants in this location, none of them bearing flowers or berries, and it is often described as 'shy flowering'. It has been recorded as flowering and fruiting more regularly at another Northumberland locality, near the summit of Simonside. The location is described as 'Cheviot at 1800 feet but never flowering' and 'close to the spring, where persons ascending generally rest themselves'. The new botanist's guide to the localities of the rarer plants of Britain by Hewett Cottrell Watson (1835). The usual ascent of Cheviot is from Langleeford, and the spring to which referred is probably on the east side of the mountain. The plant has also been described above Bizzle Crags on the north side. There is a photo of a fruiting plant from a location north-east of Cheviot here [[4067540]] The ascent of Cheviot via Hen Hole is one of my favourite routes, a dramatic gateway to the mountain and never fails to impress. Don't however rely on white flowers to find Dwarf Cornel but instead get tuned to its stalk-less, opposite, oval-shaped, pale-green leaves with 3 to 5 curving veins. By that spring where you rest, or on the steep slopes you climb, it might well be in front of your nose!
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