04 Sunday Jun 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Tags
British orchids, Common spotted orchid, native orchids, orchid, Pyramidal orchid, Southern marsh orchid, Twayblade
Wherever I walk now, I find orchids beginning to appear, and it’s truly wonderful to see these beauties. Here are the latest …
Common spotted orchid, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park
Twayblade, Lavernock Nature Reserve
Southern marsh orchid, Grangemoor Park
Pyramidal orchid, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park
28 Sunday May 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Overjoyed one day; saddened, depressed, and angry the next! That seems to be a recurring pattern for me, and probably for many of you who are passionate about our natural world. This week, the reason for my joy and pain was a beautiful colony of Bee orchids growing on a road verge in Cardiff.
I’d been watching the area for months, not sure what the grey-green rosettes of leaves would produce. They’d already had their tops cut once but were persisting and, on Wednesday’s walk, I was overjoyed to see that in little more than a week of warm, dry weather they’d sprouted flower stems and many were already open – they were Bee orchids, at least 30, probably more. I was so excited to see them – posted a rubbish phone photo on Twitter, better images later. Other people loved them too.
The very next morning they were obliterated by a contractor working for the land owner (in this case, the verge is privately owned, not council property). That same contractor has previously left areas of planted Daffodils, even after they’d finished flowering, so he recognised those planted bulbs but failed to recognise the Bee orchids. Such ignorance is part of the reason our planet is in trouble, I think – people don’t see the beauty of the natural world, nor do they have the knowledge to make informed decisions. In an ideal world, he would’ve recognised the Bees, phoned his manager, arranged a stay of execution until the orchids had had time to flower and seed.
A modicum of hope: the person who sent me the sad news about the Bees is endeavouring to find out who owns the land so we can try to prevent this happening in future.
21 Sunday May 2023
Posted in wildflowers
This was the third highlight of my visit to Slade Wood on Wednesday, a plant I’d never seen before. It wasn’t too difficult to identify once I got home, as the flowers looked a lot like those of Forget-me-not so I turned straight to that section of my wildflower guide. Say hello to Common gromwell (Lithospermum officinale) (also known as European stoneseed).
It’s a perennial, flowers from May to August, and is quite prominent in the landscape, a rough hairy plant growing up to one metre tall, so must’ve been in situ during my previous visits to this woodland. Perhaps I was so focused on butterflies, I didn’t notice it. Woodland rides – and rough, stony scrubby areas – are where this native plant thrives, but only in the southern parts of Britain, so any northerners out there will have to come south to see it.
14 Sunday May 2023
Posted in wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Field speedwell, Germander speedwell, Heath speedwell, Ivy-leaved speedwell, Speedwell, Thyme-leaved speedwell, Wood speedwell
This week’s #WildflowerHour challenge was to find and identify as many of the Speedwell species as possible. I managed to find six, had hoped for more but will just have to keep searching on future walks. Close-ups of the flowers of my six are shown below – they are Field, Germander, Heath, Ivy-leaved, Thyme-leaved and Wood speedwell.
And here are photos showing their more general features. These are in the same order as above – their scientific names are Veronica agrestis, Veronica chamaedrys, and Veronica officinalis.
And the final three: Veronica hederifolia, Veronica serpyllifolia, and Veronica montana. If, like me, you’re confused about the Speedwells and what some hints on how to identify them, Moira (@NatureLark on Twitter) has produced an excellent crib sheet which you can find here.
07 Sunday May 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
A member of the Bedstraw family, Field madder (Sherardia arvensis) is a low-growing annual that supposedly grows in both disturbed and cultivated ground on chalky soils. I write ‘supposedly’ because the Field madder pictured here grows along a sheltered damp and mossy road verge next to blocks of flats. Also, I’ve read – and my wildflower book states – that Field madder can grow up to 30cm tall but the plants I’ve seen have been tiny, only 5-10 cm. I guess wildflowers don’t read what’s written about them!
Popping out like stars against a dense background of bristly whorls of leaves, the clusters of four-petalled tiny flowers range in colour from pale pink to mauve. And, as you may have guessed from the name, the roots of Field madder can be used to make a red dye, though it is described as ‘an inferior source’ on the Oxford University Herbaria website. If you’re interested in learning more, the website also explains the source of the Sherardia name.
05 Friday May 2023
Posted in flowers, nature, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Dove's-foot crane's-bill, Geranium molle, white flowers, white-flowered Dove's-foot crane's-bill
The flowers of Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill (Geranium molle) are usually described as pinkish-purple, and certainly all the plants I’ve seen previously have had tiny pink flowers, as shown in the comparison photos below. But I’ve discovered a small area at the Cosmeston Lakes Country Park where the flowers are a true white.
I’m not sure what has caused this colour variation but it’s probably something in the soil. Before it became a country park, parts of Cosmeston were quarries, spoil tips and rubbish tips. If you follow this link to the Mary Gillham Archive website (a project I volunteered on, as my older followers will recall), you can see details – including maps and photographs – of Cosmeston during its transformation into a country park.
One legacy of its former use is undoubtedly the presence of toxic chemicals in some areas. Indeed, the top portion of the east paddock is fenced off, not for conservation purposes but, I am reliably informed, to protect park users from whatever is buried there. Residues in the soil may well account for unusual qualities in the park’s flora and fauna.
30 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in wildflowers
We’ve had National Dandelion Day (on 5 April), but today’s flower festivities have gone global. So, happy International Day of the Dandelion (#InternationalDayOfTheDandelion on social media)! I am always happy to celebrate the sunshine cheerfulness and undeniable bounty of the dandelion so here are a few recent flowers and friends finds.
23 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
As I write this, we actually have April showers but, luckily, they weren’t falling on me or this random selection of April flowers from today’s walk. First one to name them all gets … a gold star!
16 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in spring, wildflowers
Tags
#WildflowerHour, Borage family, Boraginaceae, British wildflowers, Comfrey, Forget-me-not, Lungwort, Spring colour, spring wildflowers
Finding flowering specimens of the Borage family was the target of this week’s Wildflower Hour. This family, the Boraginaceae, includes the various Forget-me-nots (Myosotis species), the Comfries (Symphytum species), Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), Viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), the Gromwells (Lithospermum species), Green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), Borage (Borago officinalis), of course, and a few other species as well. Unfortunately, our wet Spring, the recent cold spell and storm mean many of these wildflower species are not yet flowering locally but I have managed to find three species.
Comfrey : I’m not sure which of the Symphytum species this is. It’s growing on the edge of a carpark so is probably a wind-blown garden escape or was perhaps seeded via a bird dropping.
Lungwort : Sadly, this isn’t a common plant locally – I only know of two locations where it grows. I wish there was more as the bees love it.
Forget-me-not : Did you know that the yellow ring at the centre of the Forget-me-not flower fades from egg-yolk yellow to white after pollination, which indicates to insects that there’s no more nectar and they should try another flower?
09 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted in plants, spring, wildflowers
Another week, another new plant – I’m on a roll!
This hairy little annual, with the sweet white flowers, is Rue-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga tridactylites). Its three-lobed leaves (hence the tridactyl in its name) are quite distinctive and are often tinged with red, as are the plant’s stems.
In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey writes that this saxifrage is widespread but declining, though the book is now 25 years old so I’m not sure if that is still the case. Certainly, it’s not a plant I’ve come across before in my meanderings and these few were growing on the much-overgrown route of a former railway line so could originally have been carried this way by a train.
earthstar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.