24 Thursday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Everything was dripping today as my little bit of south Wales was cloaked in heavy fog. I headed down to Cardiff Bay hoping some interesting birds might be sitting out the murkiness but, if they were, I couldn’t see them. Plants were easier to spot so, as I walked back home up the zigzag path, I kept an eye out for which wildflowers were still in bloom. I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers I found, and the water droplets added a pretty touch to some of my photos, I think.
22 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
I was surprised, but delighted to find this Honeysuckle plant still in flower today.
Did you know its scent, which is strongest at night, can be detected by pollinating moths a quarter of a mile away (Flora Britannica)? Did you know its vernacular name is woodbine (I know at least one of you did) and the plant is mentioned in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms ..
So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle
28 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Tags
autumnal wildflowers, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, flowering in September, wildflowers in bloom
Last Monday, on the day of the autumnal equinox, I decided to see how many still-flowering wildflowers I could find during my wander around the east and west paddocks at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. My total was 33 – though I probably missed a few, I thought that number was impressive for the time of year. Here they are …
25 Wednesday Sep 2019
Posted in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
Agrimonia eupatoria, Agrimony, Agrimony fruit, Agrimony seed heads, British wildflowers, burred fruit, seed dispersal
In recent weeks, every time I’ve returned from a country-park wander I’ve found my socks and shoes, and my hoodie if I’ve had it tied around my waist, covered in small burrs. These are the seed heads of Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) and this is their ingenious method of spreading themselves around the countryside.
Just as some plants have seeds that have adapted to being blown in the wind, so others have devised methods of being transported by small (or, in this case, not so small) mammals. As you can see from my photos below, Agrimony fruit have a fringe of hooked bristles around their lower edge. These enable the fruit to become attached to the hides of cows, the wool of sheep, the fur of dogs, the socks of humans, to name just a few examples.
In my case, they mostly end up in the bin, but I’m sure a few will have fallen off during my walk home and, if I notice them on my hoodie, I pull them off as I’m walking along, thus doing my bit to help the plant go forth and multiply!
16 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in autumn, insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
bees, bees on scabious, British wildflowers, Buff-tailed bumble bee, bumblebee, Common carder, Devil's-bit scabious
I keep coming back to the Devil’s-bit scabious, I know, but it’s just so lovely and so full of life now that many of the other wildflowers have gone over. Bumblebees, in particular, seem to love feasting on it. I think these are Buff-tailed bumblebees and Common carders but don’t quote me!
12 Thursday Sep 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
It occurs to me that I should be posting about the last of the summer flowers before they disappear for another year. So, here’s a pretty little thing I always enjoy seeing – it’s Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).
According to the First Nature website, ‘The genus name Anagallis comes from Greek and means “to delight again” – a reference to the reopening of the flowers each day when the sun comes out. The specific epithet arvensis means “of cultivated land”, which habitat is indeed commonly graced by these lovely little wildflowers.’
01 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, flowers, nature, seasons, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, Autumn Lady’s-tresses, British orchids, British wildflowers, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, orchids, Spiranthes spiralis
Happy (calendar) Autumn!
Today’s plant couldn’t be more appropriate – these are Autumn lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis). True to their name, they usually appear when the weather turns more autumnal, and their twirling spiral form apparently reminded their original namer of the ringlets once popular in women’s hairstyles.
Though they like to grow in very short turf, Autumn lady’s-tresses are themselves quite small and, surrounded as these were by other wildflowers, especially the superficially similar Eyebright, they weren’t easy to spot.
Luckily for me, when I was having an early wander around Cosmeston this morning, I bumped into a friend of a friend, who is extremely knowledgeable about the local flora, and he very kindly showed me where these gorgeous little orchids were growing.
17 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in flowers, nature, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Field scabious, Knautia arvensis, scabious, wildflowers
Most of the scabious I see in local parks and reserves is Devil’s-bit but there is a small area of Field scabious (Knautia arvensis) at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. The insects love it for its nectar and the birds, in autumn, for its seeds. Can you see what’s lurking on the stem?
15 Thursday Aug 2019
Posted in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers
One of my favourite plants, the Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) looks fabulous whether wreathed with its tiny lilac flowers, which insects of all kinds find delicious, or bare and dry and oh-so-sculptural during the winter months.
13 Tuesday Aug 2019
Posted in flowers, nature, wildflowers
The Carline thistle (Carlina vulgaris): in the summer months it looks like an everlasting flower; in the autumn it glistens silver and gold.
