Lousewort

30 Sunday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, wildflowers

Tags

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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.

Oak burst

14 Friday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British trees, Oak bud burst, Oak flowers, oak tree, tree flowers

Here’s the latest in my occasional series of watching the trees come to life. This time, it’s the Oak tree – I’m not sure which of the Quercus species this is but I think they’re all fairly similar. First, the leaves burst from their buds, and the vibrancy of the new growth is dazzling.

210514 oak burst (4)

And, of course, everyone knows acorns come from Oaks but perhaps, like me, you hadn’t noticed where the acorns come from. Below left are the male flowers, the catkins, dangling to catch the breeze that carries their pollen, and below right are the female flowers, tucked away, sheltered, waiting to be fertilised by the pollen and develop into acorns.

210514 oak burst (7)

More yellow

09 Sunday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, Spring colour, wildflowers in bloom, yellow flowers, yellow wildflowers

A month ago, I shared some of the yellow-flowered wildflowers I’d found for the weekly #WildflowerHour challenge. In the weeks since, more yellow flowers have begun to bloom and, as today’s weather (I’m writing this on Saturday, as we sit under a heavy rain warning) is grey and windy and very wet, I fancy some bright sunshiny yellow. So, here we go …

The flowers are the butterflies’ favourite Bird’s-foot trefoil and the vibrant bushes of Broom. Although I shared some of these last time, I couldn’t resist a Shrew’s-eye view of more Cowslips. The buttercups are beginning to take over from the Lesser celandine as Nature’s yellow carpet in the meadows – these are Creeping and Meadow buttercups. Prickly sow-thistles line the edges of the lane behind my house, and Spotted medick is now brightening up the pavement verges. I’d glimpsed Yellow archangel last time but now these lovely spikes are popping up everywhere in my local woodland, a beautiful compliment to the Bluebells.

Early-purple orchids

07 Friday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British native orchids, British orchids, Early-purple orchid, native orchids, Orchis mascula, Spring colour

The 2021 orchid season has begun!

210507 early purple orchids (1)

In my local area, the first orchids to bloom are the Early-purples (Orchis mascula) and this week I was delighted to find them in two local areas, one a nature reserve, the other a woodland I regularly visit.

The Plantlife website notes that there is a legend the ‘Early Purple Orchid grew under Christ’s cross, and the leaves were splattered with the blood of Christ, have resulted in the names Gethesmane and cross flower.’

210507 early purple orchids (5)

The website also lists some of this orchid’s other vernacular names: ‘adder’s meat, bloody butchers, red butchers, goosey ganders, kecklegs, kettle cases and kite’s legs’. Personally, I just call them beautiful!

Ash burst

25 Sunday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ash flowers, Ash tree, British trees, flowers on trees, Fraxinus excelsior, tree flowers

First, the black buds split open to reveal their furry brown inner parts.

210425 ash flowers (1)

Next, those brown furry parts burst open to reveal luscious purple ‘berries’.

210425 ash flowers (2)

And finally, those purple berries transform – they’re not berries at all, of course, they’re the tips of the anthers of the spiky flowers that grow at the end of the twigs and branches.

210425 ash flowers (3)

This is an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), and they have a very complicated but fascinating reproduction system, which I didn’t know about when I took my photos – you can read all about it on the Tree Guide UK website here.

Wild and flowering

16 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Garlic mustard, Herb Robert, Honesty, Red campion, Shining crane's-bill, Spring colour, spring wildflowers

These gorgeous wildflowers are now blooming in the sunnier, more sheltered spots I pass on my daily walks:

210416 bush vetch

Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), the first of the vetches I’ve seen this year.

210416 garlic mustard

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), also known as Jack-by-the-hedge

210416 honesty

Honesty (Lunaria annua), originally a garden escapee but now naturalised in the local countryside

210416 red campion

Red campion (Silene dioica)

210416 herb robert

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) and, below, its cousin, Shining crane’s-bill (Geranium lucidum). As you can see, the flowers of these two are very similar but the leaves are quite different.

210416 Shining crane's-bill

The Yellow challenge

11 Sunday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#WildflowerHour, British wildflowers, Spring colour, yellow flowers, yellow wildflowers

This week’s Wildflower Hour challenge was to find yellow-flowered wildflowers currently in bloom. Here are my finds – a blast of spring sunshine to enjoy this Sunday evening:

210411 yellow (1)

Colt’s-foot, Dandelion, Gorse

210411 yellow (2)

Lesser celandine, Marsh marigold, Meadow buttercup

210411 yellow (3)

Groundsel, Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (perhaps a bit of a stretch to say this is yellow, but it does have ‘golden’ in its name), Yellow archangel

210411 yellow (4)

Prickly sow-thistle, Cowslips, Ragwort

210411 yellow (5)

Pushing the envelope on these ones but … Alexanders (greenish-yellow), Primrose (buttery yellow), Pussy willow (not strictly a wildflower, but I’m having it)

Devil-in-a-bush

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, plants, spring, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ancient woodland, British wildflowers, Herb-Paris, Paris quadrifolia, spring wildflowers, wildflowers in ancient woodland

During my weekly walks in local ancient woodland, I’ve been monitoring the development of this plant, watching it arise from the damp soil, waiting for its leaves to grow and its flower to emerge … and yesterday the first of the blooms were finally open.

210409 herb-paris (1)

This is Herb-paris (Paris quadrifolia), and I think you can see the reason I have been so keen to see these stunning flowers again.

210409 herb-paris (2)

Their structure is remarkable, a combination that Richard Mabey describes thus in Flora Britannica: ‘a star of four very narrow yellow-green petals and four wider sepals, topped by a crown of eight golden stamens, and later a single shining black berry – the “devil-in-the-bush” that was one of the plant’s obsolete names’.

210409 herb-paris (3)

The plants are looking particularly abundant this year and many flowers have yet to open so I will definitely be returning to feast my eyes on these beauties many times before they disappear for another year.

Blossom and bumbles

22 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, spring, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British bumblebees, Buff-tailed bumblebee, Cherry blossom, Spring blossom

At this time of year the ornamental cherry tree outside my flat is awash with blossom, of a warm white shade flushed with the merest tinge of pink.

210322 blossom and bumbles (1)

It looks glorious, especially on sunny days, and, at a time when there are few flowers in bloom, it’s a magnet for newly emerging, hungry insects of the flying kind.

210322 blossom and bumbles (2)

Yesterday, as well as a few Honey bees, I spotted half a dozen, all Buff-tailed, bumblebees doddering from one flower to the next, before lurching haphazardly to the next branch, dislodging the delicate petals as they passed.

210322 blossom and bumbles (3)