The area to the south of Canada Water station is one big car park. Literally. I skirt the stretch of water in front of Decathlon and pick my way through car park bays to some green I can see in front of Surrey Quays station. In a patch about the size of a couple of car park bays are ten different plants growing wild including Narrow-leaved Ragwort, a plant from South Africa.

Making for Greenland Dock, I cross the road and pass a hedge lining the road is thick with waxy blue sloes and a patch of funky-smelling ivy hums with honey bees. There are five or six dinghies out on the water today with a coach hunkered down in a rowing boat. Unbothered, an adult Great Crested Grebe and a fluffy juvenile are curled up asleep on a nesting platform. A few Black-headed Gulls are floating around despondently with the odd Tufted Duck inserted for variety. The other usual urban suspects – Coots, Egyptian Geese, Mute Swans, Mallards and Cormorants – are here too.

I set off clockwise round the Dock and I’m immediately struck with the extent of Jersey Cudweed growing in brickwork crevices along the water’s edge. I’m taking a photo of it when I see an older woman walking towards me and intuition tells me she’s going to stop and talk. “Shepherd’s Purse”, she says when she reaches me.  There is some Shepherd’s Purse her but I point out what I’m actually snapping. She’s not impressed but this funnily little grey plant.

On the opposite side of the Dock are some interesting plants which I haven’t seen nearer home including Henbit Dead-nettle, Musk Stork’s-bill and Gallant-soldier growing near its cousin Shaggy-soldier. I return to Surrey Quays station with a satisfying list of 45 wild plants in flower and another 5 or 6 in fruit.