Wildflower book solves ID problems

SARK is in the middle of its Wildflower Fortnight, which runs until next Saturday, but the Wildflower Exhibition at the Visitor Centre remains in situ until 3 June.

Along with the peace and tranquillity of the place and the absence of cars, the island's wild flowers must rank among the principal reasons why people choose to visit Sark and I know that many come back year after year because of the relatively unspoilt beauty of plant life.

In common with many, I have difficulty identifying much of what grows wild in Sark and, having virtually no knowledge of the subject - other than the ability to know bluebells, wild garlic and celandines when I see them - I'm usually lost when it comes to naming flowers and plants.

Now, thanks to Sark resident Susan Synnott, my problems in this respect are all but solved.

Last month she produced a book - Wild Flowers of Sark - which is not only written in excellent plain English, rather than the sort of jargon only specialists and academics understand, but is also beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs.

However, the biggest selling point for people like me is the fact that the book is colour-coded, which means that simply looking at the colour of a flower and thumbing through the pages edged in that colour more often than not leads to quick and easy identification of the plant.

But the author has gone further by using her detailed descriptions of plants to illustrate the differences between very similar members of the same botanical families. To illustrate the point, I quote an extract from a page I opened at random.

'Greater bird's-foot-trefoil (lotus pedunculatus): A larger plant than bird's-foot-trefoil, with thicker, hairy, hollow stems and darker green leaves. Flowers rich yellow, five to 12 clustered in a head. Fairly frequent in Sark in damper areas. Specimens in photos near La Vaurocque and La Jaspellerie.'

The book - which is priced at a very reasonable £10 for its 200-plus pages - is on sale in both Sark and St Peter Port and in my view is a must for anyone seeking to enhance their love of the natural beauty of this small island.

A publication of a different sort also hit the streets, so to speak, in March. Sark Life is a glossy magazine of the coffee table/doctor's waiting room variety, which has a cover price of £3 and is to be published quarterly.

Publisher Charles Maitland of Small Island Publishing described it at the launch at the Island Hall as a magazine for people who love Sark and it, too, is available here and in St Peter Port.

The first edition contains features on Sark's designation as the world's first dark skies island, the newly reopened Stocks Hotel and pictures of the winter snowfall, while the next, due out in July, promises to reveal details of the renovation of La Seigneurie.

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Sark celebrated last week's Royal Wedding much as other Channel Island communities did, with a big screen viewing, street party and music until late in the evening - although it was clear that some of the 200 or so tourists who arrived that morning were here to escape the festivities rather than join in.

Having said it before, I make no apology for repeating the view that it is on occasions like this that the Island Hall comes into its own. The place was beautifully decorated and the tone of both events I attended - the televised wedding ceremony and the (indoor) street party - was absolutely spot on.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.