Category Archives: flowers

173/365 Orange hawkweed

22 Saturday Jun 2019

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190622 orange hawkweed (3)

The Orange hawkweed (also known as Fox-and-cubs and Grim the collier) was putting on a magnificent display in Cathays Cemetery today.

190622 orange hawkweed (1)

So, I thought I’d better grab some photos because this is a cemetery that is (mis)managed by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade, those who place value in strimming everything to within an inch of its life rather than in the beauty of the wildflowers and the food they provide to insects.

190622 orange hawkweed (2)

164/365 Irises

13 Thursday Jun 2019

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Though garden escapees can falsely colour the picture, Britain has just two native irises – these are they …

190613 yellow iris (1)

Yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus)
Also known as Yellow flag iris, Jacob’s sword and a host of other vernacular names, the Yellow iris likes to bury its roots in the wet, often by ponds, streams and rivers but also in meadows where conditions under-root are damp and soggy. And that’s where I found these Yellow irises yesterday, in an area of damp ground inside a huge motorway roundabout north of Cardiff.

190613 yellow iris (2)

Stinking iris (Iris foetidissima)
Despite its (I think) unjustified name – apparently its leaves when rubbed, emit a smell like stale raw beef, but why would you rub its leaves? – this iris has the most exquisite delicate flowers. It can be found in a variety of habitats, from shady woodland rides to exposed cliff-tops – and that’s where I found this one, flowering happily alongside the coastal path at Lavernock.

190613 stinking iris (1)

161/365 A Goat’s-beard clock

10 Monday Jun 2019

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190610 Goat's-beard clock

You might well think that this seed clock belongs in an autumn blog post, rather than one from the lengthy days of early summer, but I saw this today at Lavernock Nature Reserve and couldn’t resist it. This is the fruit of Goat’s-beard (Tragopogon pratensis), a wildflower that is also known by the delightful name Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon because its bright yellow flowers always close up by midday.

153/365 The geranium and the bee

02 Sunday Jun 2019

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190602 geranium and bee

This photo was actually taken yesterday because, being the occasional numpty that I am, I didn’t take my camera with me when I went out for a stroll and some groceries this afternoon, after the rain had cleared. The bee is a Common carder (Bombus pascuorum) but I’m not sure about the geranium. Although it’s growing beneath a hedgerow in a rural lane, I think it’s a garden escape, as its description doesn’t fit with the native geraniums in my plant book. Whatever it is, it’s obviously tasty … if you’re a bee.

145/365 An orchid update

25 Saturday May 2019

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As more and more orchids are now appearing, I thought I’d post a few photos of those I’ve seen so far this year. The first were the aptly named Early purples (Orchis macula), though this year they were even earlier than usual I’m told – I spotted these beauties at Lavernock Nature Reserve on 23 April.

190525 early purple orchids

Next up were these pretty little Heath spotted-orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata) found growing at the Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve on 15 and 21 March, when I was visiting for the Marsh fritillaries.

190525 heath spotted-orchid

During Monday’s wander at Lavernock I spotted the first open flower of a Common spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsia) and on Thursday, 23 May, I found the first couple of these at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

190525 common spotted lavernock190525 common spotted cosmeston

And today’s delightful discovery, also at Cosmeston, was my first Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) for 2019. I look forward to the warm summer days when the fields at Cosmeston are awash with (mostly Common spotted) orchids – they’re a joy to behold!

190525 bee

128/365 Pinks and blues

08 Wednesday May 2019

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190508 wildflowers (1)

Rain, rain, rain today but I managed to get out for a local bimble without getting too wet.

Due to the risk of rain damaging my good camera, I just took my point-and-click and, as there weren’t many insects braving the weather, the subject today had to be inanimate, in this case wildflowers, for no particular reason in shades of pinks and blues. Can you name them?

110/365 A smelly Saturday

20 Saturday Apr 2019

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It doesn’t matter what name you call it by – Ramsons, Londoner’s lily or Wild garlic – it smells. Some people even find the smell overwhelming but I don’t mind it, and when you see Ramsons flowering en masse, they’re really very lovely.

190420 ramsons (1a)

According to Richard Mabey in my ever-useful Flora Britannica, Ramsons were ‘unmistakable and abundant enough to figure in Old English place names’ and he gives the following examples: ‘Ramsey Island off Pembrokeshire; Ramsbottom, Lancashire; Ramsdell, Hampshire; Ramsholt, Suffolk; Ramshope, Northumberland; and Ramshorn, Staffordshire’.

Here in Penarth, the banks of the stream that flows alongside Alexandra Park are carpeted with Ramsons at this time of year, and their growth is also lush in the wild gardens in Cardiff’s Roath Park and under the trees in Bute Park’s woodland trail. Get sniffing!

190420 ramsons (5)

104/365 Peggles, paigles

14 Sunday Apr 2019

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I know these gorgeous wildflowers as Cowslips but they have a wealth of other names, including Hey-flowers, Peggles, Paigles, Culverkeys and Bunch of keys, according to the entry in my Flora Britannica. Perhaps you know other local names for them.

One thing I didn’t know until today is that the name Cowslip is a euphemism for ‘cow-slop’ or cow pat because these lovely blooms often grow best in fields that have been well ‘fertilised’ by cows.

p.s. My Facebook friend George has very kindly corrected my flower identification: ‘The first and last photos are false oxlips rather than true cowslips, these are hybrids between cowslips and primroses and have slightly bigger, paler and more open flowers.’ I must pay more attention next time I’m looking at wildflowers!

100/365 Boy meets girl

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

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A sequence of events that unfolded before me this afternoon….

190410 Orange-tip male

A male Orange-tip butterfly feeding on one of its favourite flowers, and the host plant for its caterpillars, the Cuckooflower.

190410 Orange-tip male and female (1)

Finished feeding on that flower, the male flies on and suddenly smells a female. Woohoo!

190410 Orange-tip male and female (2)

Sadly for him, this female has already mated, which is why she’s holding her body in that odd upright manner. He remains hopeful for a moment or two, then gets the message and flies off.

190410 Orange-tip female

I follow the female who flies to another flower. She’s not eating so what’s she’s doing, I wonder.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aha! Can you spot the single egg attached to the flower stalk, in the very centre of the picture? I’ll have to go back in a week or so and see if I can spot any caterpillars on these flowers.