Category Archives: plants

114/365 Blue runner

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, plants, wildflowers

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Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is a type of dead-nettle, common in woodlands, lurking under hedgerows and scrambling over dampish spaces. Richard Mabey’s Flora Britannica tells me this pretty little plant was once known as blue runner because of its blue-ish flowers and its habit of spreading via overground runners. Another interesting titbit: ‘before hops became widely used in brewing, it was once one of the chief bittering agents in the making of beer’, which is why another of its common names is ale-hoof.

110/365 A smelly Saturday

20 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, plants, spring

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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)

96/365 Gorse weevils and shieldbugs

06 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, plants, spring

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I got some strange looks today when I was out walking – nothing unusual about that really. This time it was because I had my nose in a gorse bush looking for its special critters – and I found them. First, I was delighted to spot two tiny Gorse weevils (Exapion ulicis). I’ve only found them once before and these two led me a merry dance, in and around the gorse leaves, not wanting to have their photo taken. One disappeared but I managed to grab a couple of pics of the other.

190406 gorse weevil

The other critters were much easier, at least ten of them, probably many more, hiding in plain sight – that’s how well camouflaged they are. These Gorse shieldbugs (Piezodorus lituratus) were also camera shy and the gorse thorns made a few holes in my hands as I tried to pull the gorse this way and that to get some photos. But it was worth every speck of blood!

72/365 Alexanders rust

13 Wednesday Mar 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature, plants

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190313 alexanders rust

We had such a mild winter this year that the Alexanders plants (Smyrnium olusatrum) that grow well along the coastal path from Penarth to Lavernock only died down for a few short weeks, then their vibrant green once again began to appear and grow up at their usual rapid pace. And with the leaves almost immediately came the rust that loves these plants, Alexanders rust (Puccinia smyrnii). It is obviously immune to bad weather, as it has continued to flourish right through the occasional frosts and heavy downpours that were about the worst weather winter produced this year.

71/365 Growing an avocado

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

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I’d tried growing an avocado from seed several times before but this is the first time I’ve succeeded, at least so far so good. It’s been a very slow process: I first put the seed into water on 30 August last year. It was three weeks later, on 20 September, that the seed split open and I could see something was stirring.

By 11 November 2018 a root had begun to emerge but it has taken another 4 months to get to where it is now, in my third and fourth photos below, which were taken on 5 March. Let’s hope it continues to flourish.

68/365 Leaf skeleton

09 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, leaves, nature, plants

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190309 leaf skeleton

I find leaf skeletons fascinating. The structure of a leaf, in particular its veins and midrib, are usually hidden, or at least made less obvious by the tissue of the leaf. But, when the leaf has detached from its tree and the tissue has disintegrated, the structure that remains is wonderfully sculptural, like this Holly leaf I discovered in a local park.

61/365 From food to frass

02 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

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First I noticed the frass (that’s pooh, to most of us). Then I thought ‘Something fairly big must be in these Alexanders’ flower heads somewhere’. And, sure enough, with a little gentle pulling aside of leaves and flowers, I found the frass creator, very well camouflaged by its light green colouring. And then I thought, ‘There might be more’. And, sure enough, I found three caterpillars on three different plants, and frass on several more plants. These are the larvae of the Angle Shades moth (Phlogophora meticulosa). I thought it seemed rather early for them but my local Butterfly Conservation expert George tells me you can find them pretty much any time of year. 

54/365 The lion’s tooth

23 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers

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The French dent-de-lion, lion’s tooth (from the shape of its leaves), became, in English, Dandelion, that wonderful burst of wildflower yellow that lights up grassy meadows and roadside verges, and provides an important early source of pollen to emerging insects. I couldn’t go past this particularly lush flower as I stomped down the zigzag path this afternoon.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

4/365 Reeds and their buntings

04 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, plants, winter

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Today I was entertained for about two hours watching these little cuties, Reed buntings, swaying back and forth on bendy reeds, stuffing their beaks full of seeds and spitting out the fluff. When the sun finally peeked through the cloud layer, both the handsomely streaked buntings (this is a female) and the tall feather-plumed reeds shone golden, a feast for the eyes and welcome compensation for the hoped-for Bearded tits that failed to show today.

190104 reed bunting