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~ a celebration of nature

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Category Archives: wildflowers

And still the wildflowers bloom

05 Sunday Jan 2025

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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British wildflowers, wildflowers in bloom, winter colour, winter wildflowers

We’ve had torrential rain, light sleet showers, and heavy frosts, as you can see from the Daisy below.

250105 daisy

And still the wildflowers open their delicate petals and brighten up my walks with their welcome pops of colour and dainty flowers. I found those shown below this past week so, strictly speaking, they’re not all from 2025, though I imagine most have survived this week’s wild weather.

250105 wildflowers x12

The wildflowers above are Bramble, Dandelion, Gorse, Hoary mustard, Lesser celandine, Meadow buttercup, Primrose, Ragwort, Red clover, Sun spurge, Winter heliotrope, and Yarrow.

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V is for vetches

27 Friday Dec 2024

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Common vetch, Crown vetch, Grass vetchling, Hairy tare, Meadow vetchling, Tufted vetch, Vetches, vetchlings

Wildflowers haven’t yet featured in this countdown so today’s post seeks to remedy that omission (you might think the letter W would be the obvious choice but that letter is already allocated to one of this year’s star species – can you guess which?). So, as these gorgeous members of the pea family are some of my favourite wildflowers, this year V is for vetch – and vetchling, and also Hairy tare as it’s one of the Vicia species.

241227 v is for vetch common

Common vetch (Vicia sativa)

241227 v is for vetch bush and crown

Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), left, and Crown vetch (Securigera varia), right

241227 v is for vetch tufted

Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca)

241227 v is for vetch meadow vetchling and hairy tare

Meadow vetching (Lathyrus pratensis), left, and Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), right

241227 v is for vetch grass vetchling

And, finally, my absolute favourite Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)

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Winter 27

01 Sunday Dec 2024

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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British wildflowers, wildflowers in bloom, winter colour, winter wildflowers

Despite a cold snap, where even we who live in coastal south Wales saw light sleet showers, and then the blasting winds and drenching rain of Storm Bert, there are still a good number of wildflowers in bloom. These are the ones I’ve noticed this week:

241201 wildflowers (1)

Bramble, Cornsalad, Dandelion, Field scabious, Field speedwell, Gorse, Groundsel, Herb Robert, and Hoary mustard.

241201 wildflowers (2)

Hogweed, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Meadow buttercup, Meadow crane’s-bill, Musk mallow, Primrose, Purple toadflax, Common ragwort, and Red campion.

241201 wildflowers (3)

Red clover, Red valerian, Sea radish, Smooth sow-thistle, Tufted vetch, Wild carrot, Winter heliotrope, Yarrow, and Petty spurge.

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Perennial wall-rocket

24 Sunday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in plants, wildflowers

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autumn colour, autumn wildflowers, British wildflowers, Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Perennial wall-rocket

A new plant! As I’ve not been roaming far outside my local area this year, it can be difficult to find new plants to feature but, this week, I struck lucky as I had one of those ‘Oooo, that looks different!’ moments while wandering around Forest Farm Nature Reserve.

241124 perennial wall rocket (1)

I haven’t had this confirmed but I’m fairly certain this is Perennial wall-rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). I found it growing on a spoil heap, a mound of dirt and stone chips and other wildflowers, which, from what I’ve read, is one of its preferred locations. It’s a member of the mustard family, and it seems gardeners also cultivate it as a vegetable, so I assume this particular plant has become naturalised, possibly from the nearby local allotments.

241124 perennial wall rocket (2)

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Winter 16 wildflowers

20 Wednesday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, wildflowers in bloom

Those of us who love wildflowers are now checking each week to see which wildflowers we can find that are still in bloom. These are a selection of those I found when wandering around my local area last Sunday. I thought they’d make a nice cheery mid-week post, especially as the temperatures have now plunged towards winter levels and flower numbers will no doubt diminish accordingly.

241120 winter16

My image shows Bramble, Bush vetch, Creeping buttercup, Creeping thistle, Daisy, Dandelion, Field madder, Hedge woundwort, Herb Robert, Knapweed, Mayweed, Nipplewort, Pineapple weed, Ragwort, Self heal, and Sun spurge.

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The Blackberry man

10 Sunday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, wildflowers

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autumn colour, blackberries, bramble, Bramble autumn colour, Bramble berries, Bramble flowers

This post was prompted by my bumping in to ‘The Blackberry man’ during yesterday’s walk. I don’t know his name; he’s just a random stranger I got talking to two winters ago during a walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. I was picking a few Blackberries to eat, he was filling a small container to take home for his family. He’s an older man, originally from a Middle Eastern country, and doesn’t have great English, but we got by. And now, whenever we see each other at the park, we stop and chat for a few minutes.

Seeing him led me to look more closely at the Brambles. The majority of plants had already flowered, produced berries and the fruit that hadn’t been eaten had gone to seed but, scattered here and there amongst the plants, there were still a few flowers, and a few immature and ripe berries.

241110 brambles (1)

I also couldn’t help but admire the exceptional colour variations and intensity of colour displayed by the Bramble leaves as autumn progresses. So, thank you Blackberry man, for reminding me to look more closely at these often-overlooked plants.

241110 brambles (2)

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The ones I missed

20 Sunday Oct 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, wildflowers

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autumn colour, autumn wildflowers, autumn wildflowers in bloom, British wildflowers

These are some of the wildflowers I missed from last Sunday’s mid-autumn wildflowers-still-in-flower video and have found during this past week, many found during a thorough walk around Cardiff Bay where the vetches, in particular, but also plants like Viper’s bugloss are still in bloom.

241020 goat's-rue

Goat’s-rue

241020 wildflowers (1)

Bush vetch, Common chickweed, Common cornsalad, Common stork’s-bill, Creeping cinquefoil, Crown vetch, Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill, Honeysuckle, and Lucerne.

241020 wildflowers (2)

Mayweed, Old man’s beard, Petty spurge, Prickly sowthistle, Scarlet pimpernel, Sun spurge, Tansy, Viper’s bugloss, and Wavy bittercress.

241020 rosebay willowherb

And, last but certainly not least, Rosebay willowherb, which I had to use my long lens to capture as it was growing down a riverside embankment.

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Mid Autumn wildflowers

13 Sunday Oct 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, wildflowers

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autumn colour, autumn wildflowers, autumn wildflowers in bloom, British wildflowers

For the past ten days or so, during my daily meanders around the local countryside, I’ve been on the lookout for any wildflowers still in bloom and, as we’ve only just experienced our first frost of the season and temperatures generally have been quite mild, many plants still have flowers, albeit, occasionally, on a very limited scale – a single Black horehound flower on the one plant I found, for example. Other plants, like Common ragwort, are still producing abundant numbers of flowers, much to the delight and relief of those insects still out and about. Here’s what I’ve found; I’m sure there are more that I’ve missed.

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Rust: Puccinia malvacearum

11 Friday Oct 2024

Posted by sconzani in fungi, plants, wildflowers

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Hollyhock rust, Mallow rust, Puccinia malvacearum, rust fungus, rust on mallow, Tree mallow

I was photographing the flowers of a roadside Tree mallow for a mid-autumn wildflowers-in-bloom blog that will be publishing this coming Sunday when I noticed the subject of today’s blog post, this new-to-me rust, Puccinia malvacearum. Its common names, Mallow rust and Hollyhock rust, provide the perfect indication for which plants are host to this fungus.

241011 Puccinia malvacearum (1)

As is typical with rusts, this species had created yellow-orange spots on the upper surface of the leaves and brownish lumpy pustules on the lower surface and on the plant’s stems. The rust would eventually reduce the plant’s vigour, leading to stunted growth and leaf loss, though, as this particular plant was growing in a location very likely to be mown regularly by council workers, the plant will probably be cut down long before it could succumb to the rust’s damage.

241011 Puccinia malvacearum (2)

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Bumbles and Mallow

02 Wednesday Oct 2024

Posted by sconzani in insects, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Buff-tailed bumblebee, bumblebee, Common mallow

As it’s been grey here for several days, I decided to share a recent happy scene from a sunny day, a pair of bumblebees feasting on Mallow pollen. Let’s consider this a mid-week time-line cleanser. Tomorrow will see the return of the insects!

241002 bumbles and mallow

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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