20 Sunday Sep 2020
Posted in autumn, plants, wildflowers
‘The vegetable life does not content itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves, that hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that, at least one may replace the parent.’
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chapter 6: Nature, Essays, Second Series, 1844.
16 Wednesday Sep 2020
Posted in insects, plants, wildflowers
Tags
bees on scabious, Bombus pascuorum, Bombus terrestris, British bees, British wildflowers, Buff-tailed bumblebee, Bull-headed furrow bee, Common carder bee, Devil's-bit scabious, Lasioglossum leucozonium, Lasioglossum zonulum, Megachile ligniseca, White-zoned furrow bee, Wood-carving leafcutter bee
In recent weeks, when the weather has been fine and the air relatively still, I’ve been spending time searching the Devil’s-bit scabious for bees. Not just any bees, but four scarce and endangered bees. This is part of Buglife’s ‘Searching for Scabious’ project, which
aims to improve our understanding of the distribution and conservation status of some of Wales’ rarest and most threatened solitary bees – the Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana) and its associated cuckoo, the Armed nomad bee (Nomada armata), and Small Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena marginata) and its cuckoo, the Silver-sided nomad bee (Nomada argentata).
I wasn’t familiar with these bees and am not very good at bee identification in general but Liam Olds, Buglife’s local conservation officer, has put together an excellent explainer video, which can be accessed on YouTube, so I thought I’d join the search.
Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to find any of the scarce bees at the two local sites where Devil’s-bit scabious grows in abundance (and neither has Liam, which was reassuring for me re my search skills but bad news for the bees). The bees I did find most commonly were the appropriately named Common carder (Bombus pascuorum) (below, left) and the Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) (below, right).
Liam very kindly helped to identify the other small bees I found. These lovely little furrow bees are either the White-zoned furrow bee (Lasioglossum leucozonium) or the Bull-headed furrow bee (Lasioglossum zonulum) – the two species are too similar to tell them apart without closer examination.
I also found several of these more distinctive individuals, the Wood-carving leafcutter bee (Megachile ligniseca). You can find out more about them, and watch a little video of their nest-building skills, on the BWARS website. Meantime, I’m heading back to the scabious for another look.
06 Sunday Sep 2020
Posted in plants, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Common field-speedwell, Greater plantain, Persicaria maculosa, Plantago major, Redshank, Veronica persica
Earlier this year, when we were in full lockdown and our Council, in their stupidity, closed the spacious local country park even to local pedestrians, I was one of many who looked for alternative places, other than too-narrow pavements, to walk, and in the process discovered a disused lane that leads to farm fields, which, this year, have not been leased for crop growing. These fields are where, in recent months, I’ve seen many nice birds, and plants like the Musk thistle I blogged about in July and the Lesser burdock from August’s Burdock Beasties. These are a few more finds from those fields.
Redshank (Persicaria maculosa)
Of course, you can find Redshank in many diverse locations – it thrives along the lane behind my flat – but it seems to be doing particularly well in this arable landscape. You may notice that Redshank bears a strong resemblance to the Amphibious bistort I blogged about on Thursday – they are both from the genus Persicaria, and, if you want to know more about this fascinating plant, I recommend you read the entry on the Plant Lore website, which will explain why one East Anglian name for the plant is ‘devil’s arse-wipe’!
Greater plantain (Plantago major)
Its name may be Greater plantain but I think this is the Greatest plantain I’ve ever seen – it was huge. The Plantlife website has some fascinating information about this plant:
A common name is Rat’s tails which perfectly describes the plant’s flowering spike. Another vernacular name is Angels’ harps because when you pull the leaves apart you get the fibres showing between. This is also the likely explanation for the names Banjos and Beatles’ guitars.
Plantain has healing powers since the leaves contain tannins and astringent chemicals, which can make them useful styptics if crushed and applied to small cuts.
Common field-speedwell (Veronica persica)
I have trouble identifying the various members of the Speedwell family but I’m fairly confident about this one – it was low and sprawling and hairy, and its solitary flowers were on stems growing from the bases of the upper leaves. A check of its seed capsules would’ve clinched it but I forgot to look at those. As its name implies, Common field-speedwell is commonly found in fields – in fact, my footpath today took me along the edge of a field where the farmer is growing maize and the soil between the maize plants was completely covered by this lovely plant with its delicate blue flowers.
03 Thursday Sep 2020
Posted in nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
Amphibious bistort, amphibious wildflower, British flora, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Persicaria amphibia
Initially, I doubted my identification of this plant – I’d seen it growing in clumps in the waters of Cosmeston Country Park’s west lake, so how could this be the same plant growing in a section of meadow, albeit a damp area where reeds are abundant?
The Great crested grebes like to park themselves amongst the plant, perhaps to stop them drifting while they snooze.
The clue, of course, is in its name: amphibious, ‘relating to, living in, or suited for both land and water’ (Oxford Dictionary). Amphibious bistort (Persicaria amphibia) has two forms, one that resembles a water lily, floating its leaves upon the water surface, and another that lives quite happily on land that can be quite a distance from water, as long as that land is moist.
This second type also shows the somewhat more elongated leaves that its generic name refers to – persicaria ‘relates the shape of leaves of this group of plants to those of a peach tree’ (First Nature) – and the land-based form has hairy leaves, which the water-growing form does not. To clinch the identification, my book (The Wild Flower Key) says to look for two stigmas in most flowers, which Amphibious bistort has but similar species do not. And very pretty flowers they are too!
30 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Common knapweed, Devil's-bit scabious, odd-coloured wild flowers, pink-flowered Devil's-bit scabious, white-flowered Common knapweed
I’ve mentioned before here on the blog the white flowers of the usually pink-flowered Common centaury (Small and white, July 2020) and the blue flowers of the usually orange-red-flowered Scarlet pimpernel (The Pimpernels, July 2017). Today, I have another couple of wildflower oddities for you.
Pink Devil’s-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis)
As I’m sure you’re aware, the flowers of Devil’s-bit scabious are usually somewhere in the lilac, blue-mauve range but, at Lavernock Nature Reserve, there are quite a number of plants with pink flowers. I’ve read this is a natural variation but I don’t know if there is something specific that triggers the alteration in colour. At Lavernock, the pink-flowering plants grow right next to those with lilac flowers, so it’s certainly nothing to do with the soil.
White Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Also at Lavernock Nature Reserve, I recently found Common knapweed with stunning white flowers. This plant, of course, usually has flowers in the pink-purple range. Once again, plants with purple and white flowers were growing right next to each other, which presumably rules out soil composition as a factor. It’s a mystery, but a rather lovely mystery, to be sure!
26 Wednesday Aug 2020
Posted in nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Cypress spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias, Euphorbia helioscopia, Euphorbia peplus, Petty spurge, spurge, Sun spurge
The Oxford Dictionary tells me that the word spurge was first used in Late Middle English and is a ‘shortening of Old French espurge, from espurgier, from Latin expurgare “cleanse” (because of the purgative properties of the milky latex)’. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to be wary of touching that latex, which both the stem and leaves will exude if broken, as it can irritate.
In fact, the latex in Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus) is so caustic that it’s used in medications for the removal of warts and veruccas. This is the spurge I see most often, as it seems to enjoy the edges of pavements and lanes, road verges and waste ground and, though an annual, it can be seen over a long period, from April right through to October.
Sun spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia) is superficially similar to Petty spurge but is slightly larger and has a shorter growing period, from May to August. The easiest way to tell one spurge from the other is by counting the rays in the umbel: Petty spurge has three rays while Sun spurge has five. Although Sun spurge supposedly enjoys a similar growing environment to Petty spurge, I don’t see it very often in my urban area: as the photo below indicates, my find was growing in an arable field (where no crops were sown this season, but some residue crops have sprouted).
Perhaps because of its irritant sap, Sun spurge has a wealth of interesting common names. These are from the Royal Horticultural Society’s website: cat’s milk, churn staff, little good, little goody, mad woman’s milk, mare’s milk, mouse milk, wart grass and wartwort.
Cypress spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias) is the most unusual and intriguing of today’s spurges. I found a large area of this very attractive plant growing on top of the Aberbargoed coal spoil tip on 29 July but it’s taken a couple of weeks to get the identification confirmed. I’m not sure how the plant came to be on the tip – my guide book says Cypress spurge is ‘possibly native’ in southern Britain but a probable garden escape elsewhere (The Wild Flower Key).
25 Tuesday Aug 2020
Posted in autumn, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
British galls, British insects, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, galls on wild carrot, Kiefferia pericarpiicola, midge gall, Wild carrot
I was looking around at the various wildflowers yesterday at Cosmeston, seeing what insects might be about, when I noticed these odd growths on some of the Wild carrot flower heads. I split one open with my finger nail and a miniscule orange blob fell out; turns out that was the larva of a midge with the long-winded name of Kiefferia pericarpiicola.
The galls start off green (below left), before turning pinkish and eventually brown. According to the Nature Spot website, these galls can be seen from late summer through to autumn, after which the larvae will leave the gall and drop down to the soil to pupate. The midge only occurs in southern parts of Britain at the moment – and I only found two previous records in the Welsh biodiversity database – but perhaps that will change as our climate continues to warm and the midge flies further afield. It’s also possible, of course, that this insect is under-recorded – it seems the midge itself is almost never seen, only its gall creations.
23 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
British butterflies, British insects, British wildflowers, Common fleabane, fleabane, insects on fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica
The local fields are ablaze with Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica), which the Plantlife website says has a
‘curious scent, with hints of carbolic soap and chrysanthemum, [which] is an insect repellent. In the past it was kept in houses specifically for the purpose of driving away fleas. Bunches were dried and burned as a fumigant or hung in rooms.’
Well, it may be the bane of fleas and it may act as an insect repellent when it’s been dried but, from what I can see, when it’s alive and fresh, most insects love it!
As well as that Speckled bush-cricket, I’ve found 9 species of butterfly and 1 moth nectaring on Fleabane flowers.
And then there are the hoverflies and assorted other flies, bees and bumbles. It’s more like a magnet than a repellent.
16 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
Black medick, British wildflowers, Common restharrow, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Ervilla hirsuta, Grangemoor Park, Hairy tare, Medicago lupulina, Ononis repens, Pea plant family
You’ll recall that a couple of weeks ago we had some members of the Pea family (A Pod of Peas, 26 July) – well, here are another three members of that extensive kin group.
Common restharrow (Ononis repens)
The name ‘restharrow’ comes from the fact that this wildflower’s thick long roots were ‘tough enough to stop a horse-drawn harrow in its tracks’ (Flora Britannica) and that esteemed publication also notes that those roots could be chewed, with a taste like liquorice. According to the Plantlife website, the plant’s shoots also had culinary uses: they could be boiled as a vegetable or eaten in salads.
Hairy tare (Ervilla hirsuta)
There’s an abundance of this little plant curling and winding itself through the rough grassland and wildflower fields at Grangemoor Park. As its flowers are rather small, it’s easy to miss how lovely they are but they’re definitely worth a closer look, anytime from May to August.
Black medick (Medicago lupulina)
This is a plant I often see along the edges of roads but it’s also particularly numerous in one of the wildflower fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. The First Nature website explains its scientific name thus:
‘The genus name Medicago refers to the region of Iran known as Media, where this plant was thought to have originated. The specific epithet lupulina means “wolf-like” – a reference to the flowers of the hop Humulus lupulus, which its inflorescence resembles.’
13 Thursday Aug 2020
Posted in nature
Tags
Autumn Lady’s-tresses, autumn orchids, British orchids, British wildflowers, native orchids, Spiranthes spiralis
It’s two and a half weeks yet till the calendar tells us it’s autumn, and we’re all melting in the heatwave that currently has much of Britain in its fiery grip, yet the Autumn lady’s-tresses are in full flower. These gorgeous orchids are tiny and not easily spotted amongst long grass and wildflowers but, luckily, I saw a report of a find of over 40 plants in a new-to-me location and went for a look early yesterday morning. Success!
