Category Archives: wildflowers

It’s Weed Appreciation Day!

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers

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Yes, it’s another of those international days of celebration. No, this is not a post about marijuana. The Oxford Dictionary defines a weed as a ‘wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants’ but I prefer Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definition, ‘a weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered’.

So, for the obsessive gardeners out there, remember these:
Weeds provide food and shelter for insects, so they help to provide biodiversity and attract insects that are beneficial to the pollination of non-weeds.
Some weeds are also edible by humans, providing good sources of vitamins and minerals.
Weeds often thrive in impoverished soils and help to restore nutrients to those soils, as well as helping to stabilise the soil surface and prevent erosion.
Some weeds also have the ability to absorb heavy metals so can reduce contamination in industrial wastelands. They’re Nature’s clean-up crew!
Many weeds contain chemicals that are useful in medicines and herbal remedies, and research has shown that some weeds can be used as a source of biofuel.

Signs of Spring, 3

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in insects, ladybird, nature, spring, wildflowers

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You know Spring has well and truly arrived when the insects start appearing in reasonable quantities so, judging by the numbers of insects I’ve seen on my walks over the past two days, I would say Spring has most definitely sprung, wouldn’t you?

Herb Robert

12 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in nature, spring, wildflowers

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One of the highlights of yesterday’s walk was seeing this little geranium in flower. Though thought to have an offensive odour – some say it smells of burning tyres, others that it emits has an unpleasant mousey smell, hence one of its common names, ‘stinking Bob’ – I admit I haven’t noticed its stink and instead find myself attracted to its delicate ferny foliage, its reddish stalks, and its pretty pink flowers.

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This is Geranium robertianum, most commonly known in Britain as Herb Robert but with a plethora of other common names which, in part, reflect the folklore around it: Storksbill, Crow’s foot, Death comes quickly and Red Robin are just a few of its 100-odd regional variants. The origins of the name ‘Robert’ are disputed – some attribute it to the abbot and herbalist Robert of Molesme, others to Saint Robert or Rupert of Salzburg, and there appear also to be associations with the German hobgoblin Knecht Ruprecht and the English equivalent Robin Goodfellow (Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). (You can read more in this excellent blog on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.)

Herb Robert has long been valued by herbalists, for its healing properties – everything from wounds and toothache to its supposed ability to increase oxygen at a cellular level in the human body, thus assisting in the body’s fight against cancer. Personally, rather than ingest it, I think I’ll just continue to enjoy the dainty dabs of colour this pretty little plant adds to the countryside of my walks.

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p.s. Some of these photos were taken last summer.

Grangemoor Park: a first look

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in fungi, insects, lichen, nature, parks, spring, wildflowers

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I had my first wander around Grangemoor Park yesterday and I’ll definitely be going back, though perhaps when it’s a little drier underfoot. With an extensive area of grass and scrub that rises up to two central mounds (from which you get quite good 360-degree views over Cardiff), this land wasn’t always a park. You have only to look at old maps to see that, once upon a time, the River Ely meandered through Penarth Moors here but, once the river was realigned, the hollows thus created were used as one of Cardiff’s rubbish tips. When the tip was full, Cardiff Council had a load of underground drains built, as well as ventilation pipes to allow the methane to escape, covered the lot with tons of clay – hence the very soggy ground, edged it all around with a solid stone wall, and changed its designation to a park in 2000.

That may sound like a sad history but, according to locals, the park now hosts quite a broad range of flora and fauna, and I certainly saw many of the stirrings of Spring. There were bumblebees and flies, a butterfly and a ladybird, masses of primroses almost hidden under bushes, golden coltsfoot and dandelions in bloom all around and horsetail pushing through everywhere, as well as incredibly vibrant lichens and a healthy growth of Oak curtain crust fungi. I will be going back!

Sweet-potato-pink primroses

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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One of the earliest signs of Spring here in Britain is the flowering of the native primrose (Primula vulgaris). Its flowers range in colour from milk white through clotted cream to buttery yellow but there is also a sweet-potato-pink variation. In a delectable continuation of my comestible metaphors, in his Flora Britannica author Richard Mabey labels this form rhubarb-and-custard.

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I found these flowers growing locally in the now-public grounds of an old house, built between 1790 and 1810. Though some areas of the grounds have obviously been cultivated, there are also wilder areas where native flowers grow, and these lilac-flowered primroses are sprinkled in amongst the more common yellow forms, suggesting they are not garden escapees. In Flora Britannica, Mabey goes on to say that the rhubarb-and-custard variety ‘is most frequent in churchyards and on banks close to villages, so there is some doubt about its origins. But it also occurs in much wilder sites, especially in west Wales, and is so constant in its colouration that it is almost certainly a genetically different form.’ Delicious!

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Signs of Spring, 2

24 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in flowers, nature, seasons, spring, wildflowers

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170224-coltsfoot

Determination. Persistence. Resistance. Constancy.
Humans have cleared the land of ‘weeds’; laid a gravel path edged with a concrete strip; planted a bed of ornamental shrubs (many of which have died); and mulched that garden bed with metal chips yet, in spite of all that destruction of its habitat, this little Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara) has managed to push through and begin to flower.
Admiration!

Signs of Spring, 1

18 Saturday Feb 2017

Posted by in flowers, nature, seasons, spring, wildflowers

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I went for a lovely long walk around parts of Cardiff Bay yesterday and it was sunny and warm, so warm that I had to strip off my scarf and the thin jumper I was wearing over my t-shirt and under my fleece. Spring was definitely in the air and, on my return walk home, I discovered I wasn’t the only one to be feeling the temperature change. These crocuses were putting on a glorious display in the churchyard of St Augustine’s and in the small grassy area just down the hill from the church. Beautiful!

The Naked Ladies of Roath and Bute

09 Friday Sep 2016

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My colleagues at my voluntary job raised their eyebrows and smirks appeared on a couple of faces when I said I was going to photograph Naked Ladies after work last Tuesday, but it was true. I’d seen some in Cardiff’s Roath Park the previous weekend and I wanted to see if they were also performing in Bute Park … and they were!

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Of course, I’m referring to the Autumn crocus, Colchium autumnale … what were you thinking?! As well as the common name Naked Ladies, they are also known as Naked boys and Sons-before-the-father because of their growth habit – they produce leaves in the springtime that die back over the summer and then flower, leafless, in the autumn. Their scientific name comes from Colchis, a place in Georgia from where they are believed to have originated, and they are not actually crosuses at all (crocuses are Iridiceae not Colchicaceae).

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Though many of the flowers I saw had been nibbled, presumably by squirrels or slugs, the colchicine chemical these Naked Ladies contain is extremely poisonous and many people have died over the years from mistaking the leaves for wild garlic. Look, admire, enjoy but don’t touch!