Prairie Planting at Coal Drops Yard

Dear Readers, I’ve been reporting on the prairie planting at Coal Drops Yard (Kings Cross) for over five years now, and have been fascinated to see the range of plants. However, not everyone has been impressed: the Vascular Plants Recorder for Middlesex, Mark Spencer, had this to say back in 2021.

Sadly, much of inner London’s canal system is now vigorously tidied and in many areas, plants, both native and non-native are dwindling. This affect has been particularly severe in the areas around the King’s Cross and Olympic Park developments, nearly all of the semi-natural urban vegetation has been destroyed and replaced with prairie-style horticultural plantings. We are eradicating our urban natural heritage in favour of a colour-by-numbers floral arrangement to please the eye’.

Well, I do know what he means – there are plenty of plants that put on a spectacular and completely natural show, especially along the canal. But it appears that some of the plants from Coal Drops Yard are ‘hopping over the fence’ and finding life to their liking along the canal, according to my latest BSBI news, and several of them have been reported by Mark Spencer himself, who keeps a keen eye on any new plants on his patch.

First up is False Hemp (Datisca cannabina). This plant normally grows in the Aegean, the Middle East, and Asia, right into the Himalayas. A single male plant was found growing out of the canal wall near a lock on the Regent’s Canal, having made its way from the ornamental planting at Coal Drops Yard. This is the first record for this plant growing in the wild in Britain and Ireland. Will it spread? Who knows? The canal has a long history of alien plants derived from the barges that used to travel up and down with their exotic cargoes, so this is a continuation of that trend.

it’s a very fine plant, and you can see why it was favoured for the planting plan.

False Hemp fruits (Photo By Michael Wolf – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36922125)

False Hemp (Datisca cannabina) Photo By H. Zell – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9736611

False Hemp – male flowers (Photo By H. Zell – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9736637)

And in another first for Britain and Ireland, Spencer also found a mature flowering Giant Sea Holly (Eryngium pandanifolium) with several dozen seedlings, also alongside the Regent’s Canal towpath. This is a spectacular plant, that I haven’t been able to resist photographing myself on several occasions. With all those seeds it’s no wonder that it’s found a home outside the Coal Drops Yard planting.

So, although the natural plantings along the canal were destroyed, it looks as if new plants are replacing them. It will be interesting to see what wins out in the end, and what new balance of plants is established. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled along any canals that you might walk along. You never know what unusual plants you might find.