Heath spotted-orchids

04 Sunday Jul 2021

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, British orchids, British wildflowers, Dactylorhiza maculata, Heath spotted-orchid, native orchids

From the often-boggy, mostly acid grasslands at Aberbargoed direct to your screens, this week’s native British orchid is the appropriately named Heath spotted-orchid (remember, the spotted part of that name refers to the marks on its leaves, not its petals). Its scientific name is Dactylorhiza maculata, which the Plantlife website explains as follows: ‘The genus name Dactylorhiza is formed from the Greek words daktylos meaning finger and rhiza meaning root’ – so, this orchid has a multi-fingered root, rather than a single tuber. And maculata means spotted – those leaves.

210704 Heath spotted-orchid (1)

As you can see from the flower spikes below, this is another orchid with some variation in both its colours, which range from white through pink to pale purple, and its markings, which, though they look spotted from a distance, actually have various combinations of streaks and little loops. The shape of the petals is also distinctive, the lower one in particular is less deeply lobed than, for example, the Common spotted-orchid, which the Heath spotted does superficially resemble.

A viperish plant

27 Sunday Jun 2021

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blue flowers, British wildflowers, Echium vulgare, Viper's-bugloss

Of Viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), Richard Mabey writes in Flora Britannica:

[It] is a viperish plant in all its parts. The sprays of flowers that spiral up the stem are half-coiled; the long red stamens protrude from the mouths of the blue and purple flowers like tongues; the fruits resemble adders’ heads. Even the ‘speckled’ stem (it is hairy in fact) suggested snakes’ skins to early herbalists.

And like all members of the Echium family, this glorious plant is much loved and visited by insects, especially (from my own observations) bumblebees.

Variation

25 Friday Jun 2021

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British orchids, British wildflowers, Common spotted-orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsia, native orchids

I mentioned recently how I sometimes find orchids difficult to identify. These photos illustrate why. As far as I can work out, as they all had spots on their leaves, and in spite of the variation in colours and patterns, these are all Common spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsia).

Summer yellow

20 Sunday Jun 2021

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British wildflowers, summer colour, yellow flowers, yellow wildflowers

We’ve rain today, the gentle soft rain that I’ve come to associate with life in Wales, but I’m not complaining. It’s much needed, by the land, its plants and its beasties, after a couple of weeks of strong sunshine and baking heat. To counteract the dull grey I see out my window, I’m about to compile today’s post, a little video full of summer sunshine, with some of the yellow-flowered wildflowers currently in bloom. I know I’ve done this before, and quite recently, but I do so enjoy the bright cheeriness of yellow.

Pictured today are: Bird’s-foot trefoil, Creeping buttercup, Creeping cinquefoil, a Dandelion species, Dyer’s greenweed, Evening primrose, Meadow buttercup, a Melilotus species, Mouse-ear hawkweed, Nipplewort, Pineapple weed, Reflexed stonecrop, Silverweed, Smooth sow-thistle, Tormentil, Wood avens, Yellow iris, Yellow loosestrife, Yellow pimpernel, Yellow water-lily, and Yellow-wort.

Southern marsh-orchids

16 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

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British native orchids, British orchids, Dactylorhiza praetermissa, Grangemoor Park, native orchids, Southern Marsh-orchid

Mostly, I only see four species of orchid: Early purple, Common spotted, Bee and Pyramidal, so I find it tricky identifying other species. And the fact that many species of orchid hybridise with each other also complicates the identification picture. So, when a Twitter pal tagged me for help identifying a Southern marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) I couldn’t assist, but decided to try to find some for myself to learn more about their appearance. I found one specimen during a recent visit to Aberbargoed (though not at the grasslands) and several at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

The first thing I realised is that you can’t rely on colour. I found another orchid that looked the perfect shade of purple but didn’t have the right markings – perhaps a hybrid of Southern marsh and Common spotted. The two key things for Southern marsh-orchids, it seems to me, in non-botanist speak, are that the upper petals all reach skywards, like a person holding their arms in the air, and that the larger, lower petal has two cascades of spots that sometimes merge in to one but always fall in the centre of the petal, not spreading outwards. I’m sure there’s a more succinct way to phrase that but I think it’s best we each have our own ways to remember key points.

Lovely Leguminosae

13 Sunday Jun 2021

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British wildflowers, Leguminosae, Pea family

There’s something about the Pea family, the Leguminosae. Maybe it’s because my Nana used to grow Sweet peas every year so I always associate their smell with good memories of time spent with her. Maybe it’s because my Dad always grew peas in his vegetable garden (though my brother and I often ate them straight off the vines before Dad could harvest them for a family meal) – also good memories of helping him planting and weeding. Maybe it’s just that their distinctive five-petalled flowers make the Pea family a little easier to identify than many other wildflower families. Maybe it’s just that they’re beautiful. Here are some that are blooming now here in south Wales.

These are Goat’s-rue (Galega officinalis), Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), Bitter vetch (Lathyrus linifolius), Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), Common vetch (Vicia sativa), Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia), and Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis).

Spatling Poppie

09 Wednesday Jun 2021

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Bladder campion, British wildflowers, Silene vulgaris, white wildflowers

According to Flora Britannica, this plant is ‘one of the favourite food-plants of the little insects known as froghoppers, notable for surrounding themselves with protective froth whilst feeding. John Gerard … called it “Spatling Poppie”, “in respect of that kindle of frothie spittle, or spume, which we call Cuckoo spittle, that more aboundeth in the bosomes of the leaues of these plants, then in any other”.’

210609 bladder campion (3)

Gerard’s ‘Spatling Poppie’ is today better known as Bladder campion (Silene vulgaris), and I think it’s fairly obvious where the name ‘bladder’ came from – the calyx of the flower head looks swollen, as if inflated with air or water. According to the Plantlife website, the plant’s other common names include Cowbell, Maiden’s tears, and Common Bladder Catchfly ‘even though it doesn’t technically catch flies’.

210609 bladder campion (2)

This is not a flower I see often locally, so I was delighted to find several clumps growing amongst wildflowers at the edge of a local road. A roadside verge is a typical location for Bladder campion, and these lovely wildflowers can also be found under hedgerows, in fields and meadows.

210609 bladder campion (1)

First Common spotted orchids

03 Thursday Jun 2021

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British orchids, Common spotted orchid, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Native British orchid

I was delighted yesterday, as I walked up the west paddock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, to spot my first two flowering Common spotted orchids of the year. This is just the beginning of what will, I’m sure, be another stunning display, as both the east and west paddocks are usually awash with orchids in the summer months.

Lousewort

30 Sunday May 2021

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, British wildflowers, Lousewort, Pedicularis sylvatica, semi-parasitic plants

One of the many good things about visiting a different location after having been restricted to my local patch for many months is getting the opportunity to see something new. So, when I went to Aberbargoed Grasslands for the Marsh fritillaries I blogged about yesterday, I also spotted other fauna and flora I don’t usually see.

210530 lousewort (1)

Acid-loving Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica) thrives in the boggy fields where the Marsh frits are found. It’s actually a semi-parasitic plant, tapping into the roots of adjacent grasses and other plants to obtain the nutrients it needs to grow.

This plant’s name is odd: the NBN Atlas website explains that people used to believe that livestock that ate Lousewort would then become infected with lice. Bizarre!

New awakenings

23 Sunday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Common comfrey, Field scabious, Flax, knapweed, Oxeye daisy, Ragged robin, Red campion, Red valerian, Spring colour, Yarrow

Despite our un-spring-like weather, more and more wildflowers are coming in to bloom. Here are some I’ve noticed during the past fortnight’s ramblings in my local countryside: Comfrey, Field scabious, Flax, Knapweed, Oxeye daisy, Ragged robin, Red campion and Red valerian, and Yarrow. Though my video shows a decidedly blue-pink range of hues, there are other-coloured species in bloom – it’s just that I intend doing some family- or species-specific blogs so will save those photographs for now.