22 Monday Apr 2024
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on Orchids are go!
It feels like true spring now – migrating birds rolling through, several butterfly species out and about, first damselflies flitting through the air, and now the first orchid of the season is in bloom. I hadn’t thought I’d find any orchids during my woodland walk yesterday so seeing several spikes of Early-purple orchid (Orchis mascula) was a real treat.
14 Sunday Apr 2024
The challenge for this week’s #WildflowerHour on social media was to find as many tree flowers as possible. Here’s my contribution …
Ash, Birch (not sure which species), and Blackthorn
Cherry laurel (probably a garden escape) and Hawthorn
Field and Norway maples, plus I couldn’t resist adding an ornamental Cherry in to the mix, as they’re looking so gorgeous at the moment.
Goat willow, I think, female above and male below – Goat willows are dioecious, i.e. male and female flowers are on separate trees.
07 Sunday Apr 2024
Posted in flowers, insects, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on Dandelions and friends
Tags
British butterflies, British wildflowers, butterfly, dandelion, dandelion flowers, insects on dandelions, Small white, Small white butterfly
I missed celebrating National Dandelion Day earlier this week so today’s wildflower post focuses on the wonder that is the Dandelion and the many insects that rely on its early source of nutrition. This little group of photos also includes my first Small white butterfly of the year, found on Friday.
31 Sunday Mar 2024
Hawthorn is often called the May tree because it usually flowers during May but, with our wacky weather and changing climate, it’s now flowering at the end of March.
24 Sunday Mar 2024
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Spring colour, spring flowers, white wildflowers, white-flowered wildflowers
As I mentioned yesterday, this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge on social media was to find native and/or naturalised white-flowered wildflowers and, by walking around with my eyes engaged in a weird version of vertical tennis spectating (eyes to the ground for plants, eyes to the skies for birds – not recommended!), I managed to find seventeen white-flowering plants.
I felt the lushness of Daisies (above) deserved a photo all of its own. The following sixteen are Bramble, Common chickweed, Common mouse-ear, Common whitlowgrass, Cow parsley, Danish scurvygrass, Garlic mustard, Hairy bittercress, Hogweed (purple edged but mostly white), white-flowered Red valerian, Shepherd’s-purse, Snowdrop, Sweet violet, Three-cornered leek, Wild garlic, and Wild strawberry.
23 Saturday Mar 2024
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on A weekend of wildflowers
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:
A quite random combination of Forget-me-not and Cuckooflower
Both the traditional blue and the pinkish-lilac variation of Spanish bluebells
The yellows: Cowslips and Marsh marigolds and, not really new but beginning to flower in greater numbers now, Dandelions
Flowers with leaves shaped like Ivy: Ivy-leaved speedwell and Ivy-leaved toadflax
Members of the Geranium family: Common stork’s-bill, Herb Robert and Shining crane’s-bill
17 Sunday Mar 2024
Posted in flowers, plants, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on Green-flowered wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Dog's mercury, Euphorbia peplus, green flowers, green-flowered wildflowers, Helleborus foetidus, Mercurialis perennis, Petty spurge, Stinking hellebore
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:
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!
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.
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.
11 Sunday Feb 2024
Posted in flowers, trees, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on Mid-February winter 10
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.
04 Sunday Feb 2024
Posted in flowers, plants, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on First Crocuses
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Or should that be Croci, like Hippopotamuses becomes Hippopotami? On a grey damp day, these were a sublime sight.
28 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
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.
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.
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!
