Category Archives: flowers

What’s on the scabious?

16 Saturday Sep 2017

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Perhaps it would be easier to ask ‘What’s not on the scabious?’ because it seems that almost every type of fly, bee, butterfly and beetle loves this plant, though that may also be because the Devil’s-bit scabious flowers in late summer – early autumn, when most wildflowers have finished flowering, and so it provides a last delicious taste of summer’s sweetness.

Devil’s-bit scabious

15 Friday Sep 2017

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There are several species of scabious – and I love them all – but the scabious I’m seeing most in my local nature reserves is the Devil’s-bit (Succisa pratensis).

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Apparently, the scabious name is due to the rough stalks of these plants and dates to times past when scabious was used to treat scabies because people believed in the ‘signature of all things’ – not Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book but that of Jakob Böhme, who presented the idea, in 1622, that God had imprinted prescriptions for human ailments in the shapes and forms of medicinal plants – thus, rough stalk = rough skin. The ‘Devil’s-bit’ comes from the fact that this plant’s roots have a short, bitten off look.

Massed displays of Devil’s-bit scabious lend a purplish tinge to the landscape but it’s the flowers I love best. They begin as fairies’ pincushions and bloom into luscious globular gloriousness.

Butter and eggs

08 Friday Sep 2017

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It’s a pretty little thing, this Butter and eggs. There’s none of the bold bright brashness of the stark sunflower; instead, it has a mouth-watering combination of soft warm creamy butter and that bright pop of yellow of a perfectly cooked free-range egg yolk. Mmmmmmmm!

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This is Linaria vulgaris, which has the very bland and rather uninspiring name of Common toadflax. I much prefer the vernacular Butter and eggs or, indeed, its other vernacular name, Bunny mouths, which appeals instantly to the child in me and brings back memories of snapdragon flowers, which these resemble and which can be gently squeezed to make the bunny ‘talk’.

Linaria vulgaris beautifies waysides and waste grounds, as well as open grassy areas, flowering from late spring right through till November. Because of its bunny-shaped mouth, the flower can be difficult for insects to access – it takes a strong bee or bumblebee to make the bunny ‘talk’. And, as well as providing bees and bumbles with nectar and pollen in exchange for pollination, L. vulgaris is also a favourite food plant for several species of moth, including the Silver Y, the Toadflax pug, and the Brown rustic. Butter and eggs all round then!

Grim the collier

06 Wednesday Sep 2017

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Although Pilosella aurantiaca (more commonly known as Fox-and-cubs) is a native of northern Europe, it must’ve been introduced to Britain a very long time ago as it gets a mention in Gerard’s 1633 Herbal. Gerard called it Grimme the Collier, which seems to me a most intriguing name.

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I’ve read speculation that the name may have been coined because the plant’s hairs resemble coal dust on a miner’s beard (really?) but there was also a play that originated in the early 1600s called Grim the Collier of Croydon and that was apparently based on a real-life character from the mid 16th century.

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It would seem more likely that the plant’s name relates to the person or the play but, in that case, I can’t help wondering: was Grim tall with a head of bright orange hair? Was Grim an invader from northern Europe? Were these particular flowers mentioned in the play? So many questions! If you can shed any light on the collier story, please do tell.

Autumn Lady’s-tresses

01 Friday Sep 2017

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On the first calendar day of autumn it seems entirely appropriate to showcase Britain’s tiny autumnal orchid with the perfectly suited name of Autumn Lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis).

Growing up to 20cms (7.8ins) tall but often much smaller, these little beauties can be hard to spot – last week I couldn’t find them at Cosmeston (a friend spotted the first-ever sighting of them there recently) though I managed to spot these at Aberthaw Nature Reserve last Sunday. They are mostly coastal plants because they prefer sandy dunes or calcareous grasslands. In a good year, they can grow in colonies of hundreds, as thickly as grass, often in seaside suburban lawns.

It’s easy to see where the epithet spiralis comes from: the flowers spiral around the stem as they grow, though you might not guess these were orchids at all until you took a close look at the flowers. Their orchid shape is distinctive but the hairiness of the pure white petals seems a little incongruous. I presume the common name of Lady’s tresses comes from a resemblance to spiralling ringlets.

What’s on the teasel, 2

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

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The pretty lilac of teasel flower is beginning to fade now but the mini beasts have certainly been enjoying its nectar. In my local parks and reserves it’s a favourite with the 6-spot Burnet moths and with bees of all species. And not long after those pretty little flowers fade away, the seeds will begin to form and grow, and provide food for the birds, particular the dapper little goldfinch, during the winter months. I’ll try to catch photos of them on the teasels in a couple of months’ time.

Wildflowers that aren’t

25 Friday Aug 2017

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170825 flowers & insects (1)

I’m in two minds about the current trend amongst city councils to plant beds of wildflowers in local parks. I’m told that the seed mixes are often imported from Europe because they’re cheaper, so they’re not necessarily flower species that would grow naturally in the local area. It seems a token gesture on the part of councils rather than any kind of commitment to the environment. On the other hand, I can’t help but enjoy the colourful flowers, and the insects also seem to benefit from them. What do you think?

The everlasting thistle

18 Friday Aug 2017

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My new favourite flower resembles something you might find in a dried arrangement rather than a flower in full bloom but such is the look of the Carline thistle (Carlina vulgaris).

170818 Carline thistle (1)

It grows best on calcareous soils in Wales and England – they are thriving on the dry, stony grassland areas at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. It’s spiny, as you would expect from a thistle, but is not a tall plant, probably no more than knee-height, and it sends up its spiky flower heads on solitary stems that have between 2 and 5 flowers on top.

At first glance, you might think the flowers were dead but, if you look closer, you can see that they’re just like any other daisy-like flower, except for their brownish hues. When the sun touches them, they positively glow, and when the weather is cold and wet, they close up. The flowers can be seen from July through to September, after which they will dry out and often last right through the winter. I’m thinking that once they finish flowering, I might have to snaffle a couple to enjoy at home over the winter.

170818 Carline thistle (5)

What’s on the teasel, 1

17 Thursday Aug 2017

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This is the sight that greeted me as I wandered home through Dingle Park the other day.

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A Sloe shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum) had its head buried deeply into the gaps between the spines of a teasel flower head. The tiny purple flowers had finished so it wasn’t nectaring, and I would’ve thought the flower head too tough for it to be sucking plant sap, so what on earth was it doing?

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This little Green shieldbug nymph (Palomena prasina), watching from a nearby grass stem (you can see it in the background of the first image), looked as confused and bemused as I was.

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After a few minutes, the Parent bug backed out of its spiny possie but it didn’t move from the teasel.

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This was a good opportunity to get a photo of the underside of the bug … but I never did discover what it had been doing.

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The almost inedible parsnip

11 Friday Aug 2017

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While we’re on the subject of wild vegetables (see yesterday’s Wild carrot post), I must mention the other umbellifer that’s currently in full bloom, the Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). Unlike the Wild carrot, the root of the Wild parsnip is, in fact, edible, though it’s described as hard and wiry so doesn’t sound worth the bother to me. I’ve also read that the sap of the plants can cause severe rashes and burns in some people so handling doesn’t seem advisable. And, anyway, who would want to deprive the insects of their tasty feast or spoil the glorious sight of a field of parsnip in full bloom?

 

The Wild parsnip is the ancestor of the cultivated parsnip, which is one of my favourite winter vegetables – roasted, in soup, stir-fried, yum! – and its culinary use probably dates from the early Middle Ages. The wild variety can be found growing, often in large groupings, on the chalky grasslands of southern England and Wales. In Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, one particular field is like a forest of yellow, some plants taller than my 168cm, and you can smell the scent of parsnips as you walk along the tracks through the field. Delicious!

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