Category Archives: flowers

A weekend of wildflowers

23 Saturday Mar 2024

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As this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge on social media is to find white flowers (they will feature in tomorrow’s blog), I thought that today I would post about the coloured wildflowers that have begun to bloom in my local area, so here they are:

240323 wildflowers blue and pink

A quite random combination of Forget-me-not and Cuckooflower

240323 wildflowers bluebells

Both the traditional blue and the pinkish-lilac variation of Spanish bluebells

240323 wildflowers yellows

The yellows: Cowslips and Marsh marigolds and, not really new but beginning to flower in greater numbers now, Dandelions

240323 wildflowers ivy-leaved

Flowers with leaves shaped like Ivy: Ivy-leaved speedwell and Ivy-leaved toadflax

240323 wildflowers geraniums

Members of the Geranium family: Common stork’s-bill, Herb Robert and Shining crane’s-bill

Green-flowered wildflowers

17 Sunday Mar 2024

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As the Wildflower Hour team wrote on social media when announcing this week’s challenge: ‘Some of the loveliest wildflowers are green! Can you find one for this week’s challenge?’. Well, yes, I can. In fact, I found three on yesterday’s meander, and I’m sure there must be more that I missed. My finds are:

240317 dog's mercury

Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis). I didn’t know until today, when I was reading the First Nature website, that ‘Dog’s Mercury is an extremely poisonous plant and when eaten it has been known to cause vomiting, jaundice and coma.’ Of course, you’d have to be pretty stupid to eat it, but some foragers are pretty stupid!

240317 petty spurge

Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus), a common sight along the edges of lanes and pavements, and scattered across any patch of waste ground. It’s just getting started again in my area after being knocked back by the cooler winter weather and the interminable rain.

240317 stinking hellebore

Stinking hellebore (Helleborus foetidus). This was a surprise find along a local river embankment and, though Stinking hellebore is a UK native, because of its sudden appearance in that location, I think this particular specimen is probably a garden escapee.

Mid-February winter 10

11 Sunday Feb 2024

Posted by in flowers, trees, wildflowers

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Despite this having been a very wet week, the temperatures have been quite mild and, in some cases – as with the ornamental Cherry tree outside my flat, for example – I’ve felt like I could almost see the buds fattening. So, it comes as no surprise to me that, this week, I’ve managed to find ten species of wildflower and tree in flower: Alder, Field speedwell, Dandelion, Lesser celandine, Primrose, Wild strawberry, Sweet violet, Common fumitory, Three-cornered leek, and Red dead-nettle.

W is for wildflowers

28 Thursday Dec 2023

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Wildflowers: they brighten dull, grey and rainy days; they encourage me to expand my botanical knowledge, which is much needed; they provide a reason to get out of the house when I’m feeling lazy; they cheer me when the world feels sad, bad and mad. As the year draws to a close, I thought I’d share some wildflower collages from throughout the year, to brighten your winter day (at least, for those of you in the northern hemisphere) and also to encourage you to take part in this year’s New Year Plant Hunt, which is running from 30 December 2023 to 4 January 2024 (details on the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland website). This first image is from 8 January.

231228 wildflowers 230108

This second assembly, in the form of a video slideshow, contains the flowers I found during the week ending 26 February, an end-of-winter selection.

Next up, in 3 images, are the many flowers found on 24 September, an early autumn abundance of colour.

231228 wildflowers 230924 (1)231228 wildflowers 230924 (2)231228 wildflowers 230924 (3)

And this final series is very recent – these are the flowers I found during my meanderings for the week ending 17 December, an amazing and most unexpected 31 species. They certainly brightened up the short grey days!

231228 wildflowers x31 (1)231228 wildflowers x31 (2)231228 wildflowers x31 (3)231228 wildflowers x31 (4)

It’s spring!

22 Wednesday Nov 2023

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Spring? Oh, wait. We haven’t had winter yet. Well, I found my first flowering Primrose – the traditional harbinger of springtime –lurking under the trees and shrubs in the scruffier part of a local park during today’s walk. Although it has been even wetter than usual this autumn, it has been very mild so perhaps that has fooled some plants into thinking spring is just around the corner.

231122 primrose

Hop trefoil

19 Sunday Nov 2023

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At first I hesitated to name this Hop trefoil (Trifolium campestre) as it’s a new plant for me but, when I posted some photos online, I got a thumbs up from a botanist and, looking at the ID guidance on the Naturespot website, I think it meets the criteria:

231119 Hop trefoil (1)

Short, hairy, erect plant. Trifoliate, leaflets oval, narrowed towards the base, the central one short stalked. Flowers pale yellow, becoming pale brown eventually, 4 to 5 mm long in small, globose, stalked heads to 15 mm across

And

… Larger and paler than Lesser Hop-trefoil, and turns brownish with age. Both trefoils are similar to Black Medick in flower, but Black Medick leaves are much more hairy and have an apiculate point (i.e a short fine ‘needle’ from the end of the leaflet)

231119 Hop trefoil (2)

59!

12 Sunday Nov 2023

Posted by in autumn, flowers, wildflowers

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I was surprised at the start of the week to find wildflowers blooming that should long since have gone to seed and that inspired me to see just how many wild flowers I could find during this week’s walks. The answer, of course, is in the title of this post – 59! That is to say, I have 59 images to share but there were a few more plants in flower that I didn’t manage, for one reason or another, to photograph. Some wildflowers were quite unexpected, like the Carline thistle that had one flower open and 3 more buds still to develop; some were abundant, like the Yellow-wort still standing tall in a field at Cosmeston; others, like the Common stork’s-bill, were the last survivors of the strimmers that have been very active this month. Here they all are …

Crane’s-bill vs stork’s-bill

29 Sunday Oct 2023

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It occurred to me today, after seeing both Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium) and Meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) still flowering locally, to wonder what the difference is between stork’s-bills and crane’s-bills. According to my Flora Britannica, it’s to do with the length of the birds’ bills, i.e. the seed cases of the stork’s-bills are longer than those of the crane’s-bills. The photos below show the relative differences, Meadow crane’s-bill above, Common stork’s-bill below.

231029 meadow crane's-bill vs common stork's-bill (1)

And because they both have lovely flowers, albeit of very different sizes (Common stork’s-bill is a tiny plant compared to Meadow crane’s bill), here they are, again Meadow crane’s-bill above, Common stork’s-bill below.

231029 meadow crane's-bill vs common stork's-bill (2)

39

24 Sunday Sep 2023

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39. That’s the number of wildflowers I photographed as I wandered around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park yesterday. I was also on the look out for American birds (if you’re not local or a birder, you may not know that there’s been an unprecedented number of American birds found in western parts of Britain after the remnants of Hurricane Lee swept through last week), but the sheer numbers and varieties and colours of these wildflowers were very welcome compensation.

230924 cosmeston wildflowers (1)

These beauties are in the order I found them as I walked: Oxeye daisy, Common ragwort, Common knapweed (with unusual contrasting petal colours), Eyebright, Bird’s-foot trefoil, Red clover, Black medick, Agrimony, Wild parsnip, Devil’s-bit scabious, Selfheal, Wild carrot.

230924 cosmeston wildflowers (2)

Goat’s-beard, Yellow-wort, Meadow buttercup, Bramble, Creeping thistle, Large bindweed, Great willowherb, Common mouse-ear, Hogweed, White clover, Meadow vetchling, Daisy

230924 cosmeston wildflowers (3)

Carline thistle, Scarlet pimpernel, Common centaury, Musk mallow, Flax, Rough sow-thistle, Blue fleabane, Creeping cinquefoil, Mouse-ear-hawkweed, Yarrow, Hemp-agrimony, Common fleabane, Tufted vetch, Spear thistle, Red bartsia.