Tag Archives: British wildflowers

In praise of thistles

25 Sunday Jul 2021

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Butterfly larvae and various beetles feed on their leaves; scores of insect species feast on their nectar and pollen; the stems of the plants are home to various over-wintering insect larvae; and, when the flowers are finished, birds like Goldfinches, Linnets and Siskin feed on their seeds. The plants I’m describing are the various species of the much maligned thistle family. Despite the derision of some farmers and the ‘neat-and-tidy’ brigade of gardeners, thistles are superb plants for wildlife, and I also think their flowers are rather beautiful.

During recent walks I’ve been capturing images of some of the creatures I’ve seen enjoying the bounty of these wild beauties: Comma, Large skipper, Marmalade hoverfly, Meadow brown, Red admiral, Red soldier beetle, Red-tailed bumblebee, Ringlet, Scorpion fly, Six-spot burnet, Small copper, Small skipper, and White-tailed bumblebee.

The Andrex plant?

22 Thursday Jul 2021

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I had to laugh when I read in Flora Britannica that, because this plant’s large leaves feel like they are covered in soft grey wool: ‘In a more modern – and practical – vein, mullein has been nicknamed “the Andrex plant”, and its leaves used accordingly.’ I cannot attest to the veracity of this statement!

This is Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus), which also has some wonderful, less recent vernacular names: Aaron’s Rod, Hagtapers, Adam’s flannel, and Our Lady’s candle. These names are no doubt inspired partly by those leaves and also by the enormous yellow-flowered spike, which can grow to four or five feet tall. Mullein is a biennial plant: in its first year there is just a rosette of leaves, and it’s not till its second year that the flower spike grows.

Marjoram and sage

18 Sunday Jul 2021

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Two of this week’s wildflower finds are herbal so it makes sense to blend them together here. First up, is Wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare), known in the Mediterranean countries as Oregano, though it doesn’t smell quite as pungent when grown in Britain’s cooler climate. This lovely plant can often be found in chalk and limestone grasslands, under hedge rows and in roadside verges, where its flowers are favourites of butterflies and other insects.

210718 wild marjoram (1)210718 wild marjoram (2)

The second plant, a new one for me, is Wood sage (Teucrium scorodonia), another wild herb that doesn’t have the strength of scent you find in the sage you use in cooking. As you might guess from its name, this plant thrives along dry woodland rides, but can also be found in coastal situations, in dunes and heaths and on cliffs.

Heath spotted-orchids

04 Sunday Jul 2021

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From the often-boggy, mostly acid grasslands at Aberbargoed direct to your screens, this week’s native British orchid is the appropriately named Heath spotted-orchid (remember, the spotted part of that name refers to the marks on its leaves, not its petals). Its scientific name is Dactylorhiza maculata, which the Plantlife website explains as follows: ‘The genus name Dactylorhiza is formed from the Greek words daktylos meaning finger and rhiza meaning root’ – so, this orchid has a multi-fingered root, rather than a single tuber. And maculata means spotted – those leaves.

210704 Heath spotted-orchid (1)

As you can see from the flower spikes below, this is another orchid with some variation in both its colours, which range from white through pink to pale purple, and its markings, which, though they look spotted from a distance, actually have various combinations of streaks and little loops. The shape of the petals is also distinctive, the lower one in particular is less deeply lobed than, for example, the Common spotted-orchid, which the Heath spotted does superficially resemble.

A viperish plant

27 Sunday Jun 2021

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Of Viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), Richard Mabey writes in Flora Britannica:

[It] is a viperish plant in all its parts. The sprays of flowers that spiral up the stem are half-coiled; the long red stamens protrude from the mouths of the blue and purple flowers like tongues; the fruits resemble adders’ heads. Even the ‘speckled’ stem (it is hairy in fact) suggested snakes’ skins to early herbalists.

And like all members of the Echium family, this glorious plant is much loved and visited by insects, especially (from my own observations) bumblebees.

Summer yellow

20 Sunday Jun 2021

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We’ve rain today, the gentle soft rain that I’ve come to associate with life in Wales, but I’m not complaining. It’s much needed, by the land, its plants and its beasties, after a couple of weeks of strong sunshine and baking heat. To counteract the dull grey I see out my window, I’m about to compile today’s post, a little video full of summer sunshine, with some of the yellow-flowered wildflowers currently in bloom. I know I’ve done this before, and quite recently, but I do so enjoy the bright cheeriness of yellow.

Pictured today are: Bird’s-foot trefoil, Creeping buttercup, Creeping cinquefoil, a Dandelion species, Dyer’s greenweed, Evening primrose, Meadow buttercup, a Melilotus species, Mouse-ear hawkweed, Nipplewort, Pineapple weed, Reflexed stonecrop, Silverweed, Smooth sow-thistle, Tormentil, Wood avens, Yellow iris, Yellow loosestrife, Yellow pimpernel, Yellow water-lily, and Yellow-wort.

A select club

19 Saturday Jun 2021

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A couple of years ago, I discovered through chats to local Butterfly Conservation Senior moth ecologist George that three rare moths use Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria) as their larval food plant. (There’s a Butterfly Conservation factsheet about these here.)

210619 dyers greenweed

The larvae create little homes for themselves by spinning together the leaves at the tips of Dyer’s greenweed shoots, and, yesterday, after much careful searching, I finally found a ‘spinning’ that was occupied.

George has now confirmed for me that this little beauty is the larva of the nationally scarce moth Mirificarma lentiginosella. And he writes: ‘You now join the select club of people who have seen this species in Wales: you, me, and C.G. Barrett who recorded it in Pembrokeshire in the 1800s’. As you can imagine, I am extremely pleased to have joined this select club!

210619 Mirificarma lentiginosella (3)

Lovely Leguminosae

13 Sunday Jun 2021

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There’s something about the Pea family, the Leguminosae. Maybe it’s because my Nana used to grow Sweet peas every year so I always associate their smell with good memories of time spent with her. Maybe it’s because my Dad always grew peas in his vegetable garden (though my brother and I often ate them straight off the vines before Dad could harvest them for a family meal) – also good memories of helping him planting and weeding. Maybe it’s just that their distinctive five-petalled flowers make the Pea family a little easier to identify than many other wildflower families. Maybe it’s just that they’re beautiful. Here are some that are blooming now here in south Wales.

These are Goat’s-rue (Galega officinalis), Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), Bitter vetch (Lathyrus linifolius), Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), Common vetch (Vicia sativa), Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia), and Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis).