Category Archives: flowers

Oxeyes and friends

03 Sunday Jul 2022

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These photos were taken over 3 days, as I meandered around the local fields and meadows. The ‘friends’ are a wide variety of creatures that all pollinate Oxeye daisies just by flitting/hopping/flying from one to the other, including ladybirds and their larvae; an as-yet-unidentified mirid bug; at least two spider species, including crab spiders using their colour to camouflage their presence; a wide variety of flies; crickets young and old; solitary bees; good numbers of Swollen-thighed beetles, male and female; and a very confiding Meadow grasshopper – they usually hop off when I approach. And these are just the insect species I managed to photograph – I know there are more I missed.

The Bees are buzzing

29 Wednesday Jun 2022

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Yesterday I went for a meander to check how the orchids were doing this year on the Cardiff side of the River Ely. You might remember in early June last year I blogged about the Fiesta of Bee orchids happening along the verges of Ferry Road near Cardiff Bay. I hoped I hadn’t left it too late for this year’s display; the verges are a little more overgrown, the grasses taller, but the Bee orchids are flowering again in their hundreds and look just as amazing.

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Thousands of Pyramidal orchids

26 Sunday Jun 2022

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I learned, earlier this week, that the rangers and volunteers at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park do an annual count of the orchids growing in the east paddock. On Friday 17 June, they counted an amazing 4828 Pyramidal orchids (as well as 5254 Common-spotted and 155 Bee orchids). These are just a few of those splendorous Pyramidals.

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Yellow rattle

12 Sunday Jun 2022

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Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), the meadow-maker, the miracle-working semi-parasitic plant that weakens the overwhelming grasses in our fields by feeding on their nutrients, thus allowing more delicate wildflowers their chance to thrive. The rattle in the name comes from the noise of the ripe seeds in their pods and, according to the Plantlife website, cattle love its taste – ‘when let into a field it is the first thing they will eat’, so it’s a win for the cattle, and a win for wildflowers.

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An orchid surprise

05 Sunday Jun 2022

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The site where I usually see Southern marsh-orchids (Dactylorhiza praetermissa), Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, has been closed for several months (it’s a former landfill site and the aged infrastructure that manages escaping methane gas and the leaching of contaminated water into the adjacent river is being upgraded). So, it was a thrilling surprise to discover three of these beauties in the damp lower edge of a local meadow where they’ve not been recorded before.

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First and second

22 Sunday May 2022

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It’s amazing what a bit of rain can do. I’ve been watching the rosettes of Common spotted-orchids in various locations over the past week or so as their leaves flesh out and their flower spikes develop but I was still surprised to see this year’s first two plants with open flowers during my morning walk.

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They may be common but they are truly glorious, and I can’t wait for the time when the meadows are full of their flowers.

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The Brimstone, the vetch and the ants

20 Friday May 2022

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Two for the price of one today: a lovely female Brimstone butterfly, which I was really happy to catch feeding on Common vetch.

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But, lurking beneath the flower, you may be able to spot a small creature. It’s an ant and, if you’ve ever looked closely at the flowers of any of the vetch family (Common, Bush, Tufted, and the vetchlings), you may have noticed they all prove attractive to ants.

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I’ve only recently discovered the reason for this: these plants all have extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), tiny glands on the stems and other areas of a plant, where nectar is secreted. The vetches aren’t the only plants to have these EFNs – according to a report on the University of Florida website (and there are many other scientific papers online, if this subject intrigues you), EFNs have been found in over 2000 plant species. Scientists don’t seem completely sure why plants ‘feed’ ants in this way, though it may be a means of rewarding ant species for their protection against the plant-munching larvae of other insect species.

A crow companion

17 Tuesday May 2022

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I had company as I walked very slowly along the west paddock paths at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park yesterday. This Carrion crow is one of a pair that frequents the area and, as they are fed almost daily by a local visitor, they’ve become quite used to quiet humans. I confess I have given them seed from time to time and I’m sure crows are smart enough to recognise individual people, so it may also have been hoping for a treat from me. No such luck, but it seemed to be finding plenty of tasty morsels amongst the glorious Bird’s-foot trefoil as we walked along together.

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