Category Archives: flowers

Harebells

13 Sunday Jul 2025

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Though my Flora Britannica tells me the Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) is ‘one of the most catholic in its choice of habitats’, growing on almost ‘any kind of dry, open and relatively undisturbed ground, from mountain-tops to sand-dunes’, it does not grow in my part of coastal south Wales.

So, for me, it was a delight to see the delicate blue bell-shaped flowers of this lovely wildflower nodding in the breeze on Rodborough Common during my recent visit to Gloucestershire. (In fact, I really must plan an earlier visit up that way as the Common is known for its wonderful wildflowers, especially several species of orchid, but everything was looking rather frazzled in the summer heat.)

It’s probably no surprise that the Scots often call Harebells ‘bluebells’ – the name fits well their flower’s colour and shape, though the Harebell blooms later, between July and September. The Wildlife Trusts website says Harebells have other vernacular names that allude to their magical associations: ‘witches’ thimbles’ and ‘fairy bells’, but I haven’t found any more detail about why that is.

Unbranched bur-reed

29 Sunday Jun 2025

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When I popped down to the edge of the River Ely during last Monday’s walk, I was hoping for dragons and damsels. Instead, I saw flowers I’d not seen before; these plants with the rather lovely towers of globular spiky white blooms are members of the Bur-reed or Sparganium family of aquatic plants that grow both in moving and still fresh water.

There are four species of Bur-reed in Britain: Branched, Unbranched, Least and Floating. From the fact that there is a single unbranched flower spike (raceme), with just one group of the smaller, more compact male flowers at the top means that the species I found was Unbranched bur-reed (Sparganium emersum).

Coteries of orchids

08 Sunday Jun 2025

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I was searching for adjectives to describe the many native orchids I’ve been seeing during my recent meanders, then decided that you didn’t really need my blathering to see how sublime they are.

Bee orchids (Ophrys apifera), at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. Note the unusual markings on the ‘face’ of the orchid on the right – it looks to me to be crying.

Also from Grangemoor Park, a feast of Pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis)

Heath spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata) from last Wednesday’s visit to Aberbargoed Grasslands NNR

One of just a few Southern marsh orchids (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) growing on the coal spoil tip at Aberbargoed

Orchids already?

25 Sunday May 2025

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This year seems to be flying by. I mean, how can the Common spotted-orchids be flowering already?

Maybe it’s just me, and the house move, and everything associated with that that’s made this year seem to be passing so quickly. Or maybe it’s just old age – when I was young, time often seemed to drag; now it zips by too quickly.

Anyhoo, whether or not I was ready for them, the orchids are out and looking as gorgeous as they always do. I hope you get to enjoy them too.

White squared

11 Sunday May 2025

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Over the past few weeks I’ve been gathering photographs of white wildflowers during my walks. These are what I’ve found: Bramble, Chickweed, Cleavers, Daisy, Garlic mustard, Hairy tare, Hedge parsley, Meadowsweet, Oxeye daisy, Three-cornered leek, Wavy bittercress, White clover, Wild strawberry, Wood anemone, and Woodruff.

Bells of blue

27 Sunday Apr 2025

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I had hoped to get to my local slice of ancient woodland for a walk amongst the native Bluebells this week but it didn’t happen so here are some beautiful non-native but naturalised Bluebells that I’ve encountered in this week’s urban meanders. I hope you all have woodlands near you with Bluebells to enjoy.

Luscious leek for lunch

13 Sunday Apr 2025

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Today’s short local meander was rather smelly, firstly with swathes of Wild garlic (which will feature in an upcoming post) and also this lush area of Three-cornered leek (or Three-cornered garlic, Allium triquetrum), which was attracting lots of insects.

First up, a tiny solitary bee.

Then, several Dark-edged bee-flies came hovering in to view, long spiky legs dangling below and long tongues poking in to the flowers to feed.

And then this brute showed up, the first Hairy-footed flower bee I’ve managed to photograph this year, just.

Pretty drooping weeping flowers

06 Sunday Apr 2025

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‘The Wood anemone’, a poem by John Clare (1793-1864)

The wood anemone through dead oak leaves
And in the thickest woods now blooms anew,

And where the green briar and the bramble weaves
Thick clumps o’green, anemones thicker grew,

And weeping flowers in thousands pearled in dew
People the woods and brakes, hid hollows there,

White, yellow and purple-hued the wide wood through.
What pretty drooping weeping flowers they are:

The clipt-frilled leaves, the slender stalk they bear
On which the drooping flower hangs weeping dew,

How beautiful through April time and May
The woods look, filled with wild anemone;

And every little spinney now looks gay
With flowers mid brushwood and the huge oak tree.

Hairy violets

23 Sunday Mar 2025

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As I wrote in last Sunday’s post, it’s violet time, and I’ve since realised that I’ve not previously blogged about one violet species I see very often, the Hairy violet (Viola hirta).

This species and the Sweet violet (Viola odorata) are the only two to have rounded sepals, which narrows down the possibilities for identification purposes. Also, the sepal appendages are different: in Sweet violet, these are angled away from the flower’s stem, while the sepal appendages of the Hairy violet are pressed towards the stem.

Another distinguishing feature is the petal colour: the petals of the Hairy violet are paler, with a lilac hue, whereas those of the Sweet violet are a deep purple (unless they’re the white-coloured sub-species, of course).

The two violet species also grow in different environments. Sweet violets prefer the edges of woodland rides, and churchyards, and roadside verges, while Hairy violets are mostly found on dry calcareous grasslands, like those found in two of the fields at my local country park, Cosmeston Lakes, which is where I took these photos earlier today.