18 Sunday Sep 2022
Posted in autumn, wildflowers
At this time of year, when there are few wildflowers in bloom, the presence of Rough sow-thistle, with its glowing yellow flowers and fluffy white seedheads, is a lifesaver for thirsty bees and butterflies, and a boon for finches wanting to nibble at its seeds. And, for me, it provides yet another example of the sculptural beauty of the seedheads of plants.
11 Sunday Sep 2022
Posted in autumn, flowers, wildflowers
Over the summer, one of the local fields I regularly walk around was a sea of yellow, chock full of tall flowering Ragwort plants.
Now that it’s autumn, the landscape has changed to a rich brown, dotted with tiny spots of white, the fluffy Ragwort seeds. It would be easy to overlook this brown field but, when you look closely, the seedheads are quite lovely.
01 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
New month, new season, new plant. This is Salad burnet, which seems recently to have had a change of scientific name from Sanguisorba minor to Poterium sanguisorba. As you might guess from the root of the word, the sanguisorba part of those names, old and new, refers to blood. Richard Mabey explains in Flora Britannica: ‘The round, rust-speckled flower-heads, a little like scabs or blood clots, made it a signaturist’s favourite, for staunching wounds….’ I don’t see the resemblance myself – in fact, I think the flower-heads look a little like terrestrial versions of sea-anemones.
From the common name, it is obvious that this plant can be used as a salad green and, though I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve read that it has a slightly bitter taste and that the leaves smell of cucumber when crushed. I will have to revisit the find site to check that out.
27 Saturday Aug 2022
Posted in nature
‘What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?’
From the poem ‘Leisure’ by Welsh poet W. H. Davies, Songs of Joy and Others, A. C. Fifield, 1911.
21 Sunday Aug 2022
Posted in insects, wildflowers
Tags
British butterflies, British insects, British wildflowers, Common fleabane, fleabane, insects on fleabane, yellow wildflower
Fleabane is a godsend. It starts to flower in mid summer and carries on flowering through to early autumn, providing a much-needed food source for a diverse range of insects at a time when many other wildflowers are beginning to wilt and wither. I’ve been accumulating the photos in this video for several weeks, and many of the featured insects have themselves now faded away, victims of the passing of time and also of the sizzling hot temperatures we’ve been experiencing. I’m sure those insects that have managed to survive the hot dry weather have been very grateful for the sustenance Fleabane has provided.
17 Wednesday Aug 2022
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
There’s no mistaking Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) – no other plant is so blue and spiky. I only see it locally in one place, growing in the sandy soil of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, where it may originally have been introduced in a sown wildflower mix but has since made itself at home and prospered. In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey explains that the leaves ‘are covered with a waxy cuticle, a device to help the plant retain water in salt winds and seaside sunshine’. And, despite its name and how spiky it is, it’s not related to Holly the shrub/tree but is, rather, a member of the carrot family.
14 Sunday Aug 2022
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Topknot or tonsure or a bizarre combination of both? Teasel flowers never seem to flower throughout their length all at the same time. I wonder why that is.
07 Sunday Aug 2022
Posted in plants, wildflowers
Sessile: adjective; Botany zoology (of a plant or animal structure) attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle (Oxford Dictionary).
Dwarf thistles (Cirsium acaule) are also known as Stemless thistles and are a good example of a sessile plant. The only local patch of Dwarf thistles I know is flourishing this year, as their preference is for ‘dry grassy habitats’ on ‘calcareous soils’ (Naturespot website).
31 Sunday Jul 2022
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Yellow is summer, sunshine, heat. Even before the record temperatures of the recent heat wave, walking through fields of these bright yellow (and orange) wildflowers was making me feel hot.
24 Sunday Jul 2022
Posted in flowers, plants, wildflowers
Tags
British orchids, British wildflowers, Broad-leaved helleborine, Epipactis helleborine, native orchids, orchid
I took these photos of Broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) ten days ago, on 13 July, and even then I had expected them to have shrivelled in the sweltering heat. Now, after the heatwave, I imagine they will have wilted, drooped, possibly died off completely but I will go back soon to check on them as they have such lovely flowers.
earthstar 
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