Variable and promiscuous

06 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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British flora, British wildflowers, purple violets, Sweet violet, Viola odorata, violets, white violets

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In Flora Botannica Richard Mabey’s opening statement on the violet family reads: ‘The violets are a variable and promiscuous family, apt to throw up all kinds of sports and hybrids.’ This once meant that botanists split the family into as many as 40 different species, depending on their colour variations. Fortunately, common sense and modern scientific analysis has now prevailed and that number has been almost halved. Still, violets are not always easy to identify.

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Although the violets in my photos are both purple and white, they are, I believe, all Sweet violets (Viola odorata), as they all had the distinctive scent of this variety – Common dog violets (Viola riviniana) are so called because they do not smell. In olden times, Sweet violets were one of the herbs that were strewn on floors to improve the smell of your home, and they have also been used by herbalists to treat insomnia, depression and headache. All that, and pretty too!

180406 sweet violets (7)

Lovely Lungwort

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, spring, wildflowers

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British flora, British wildflowers, Jacob's coat, Lungwort, Mary spilt the milk, Pulmonaria officinalis, Soldiers and sailors, spring flowers

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I kid you not – Lungwort really is this wildflower’s common name (scientific name: Pulmonaria officinalis). And why? Well, it goes back to the times when people believed that the physical qualities of a plant – its shape, colour, features – reflected its uses (a theory also known as the doctrine of signatures). In this case, the freckled oval-shaped leaves were thought to resemble diseased lungs (and I thought I had a good imagination!) and so the plant was (and still is) used as a treatment for various respiratory ailments.

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Those blotchy leaves are also the reason for one of the plant’s many common names, ‘Mary-spilt-the-milk’. And the variety of pinks and blues in its flowers are behind its other vernacular names, ‘Jacob’s coat’ and ‘Soldiers and Sailors’ – all much more understandable.

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This week in wildflowers

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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#FloralFriday, British flora, British wildflowers, Colt's-foot, Daisy, dandelion, gorse, Groundsel, Lesser Celandine, Red dead-nettle, Speedwell, Three-cornered garlic, wildflowers

What a week it’s been weather wise! We’ve gone from a generous dumping of snow and temperatures hovering around -5°C last Sunday through occasional rain, sunny periods, UV factors up and down, zephyr winds and mustang gales. Is it spring or isn’t it? Well, I’m seeing increasingly more wildflowers so I guess it must be. Here’s a selection from this week’s wanders.

Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara)

Daisy (Bellis perennis)

a type of Dandelion (Taraxacum sp.)

a type of Gorse (Ulex sp.)

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)

Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna)

Red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum)

a species of Speedwell (probably Germander) (Veronica sp.)

Three-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum)

2018’s first Colt’s-foot

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Colt's-foot, Coltsfoot, signs of spring, spring flowers, Tussilago farfara

Monday’s walk took me around Grangemoor Park, looking to see what effects last week’s snow storm had had. Luckily, the park and its wildlife appear to have come through fairly well – no trees down, no signs of dead creatures (though they could have been hidden), and plenty of bird sounds all around. And then, the best thing, in a location where I had seen many last year, almost hidden under twigs, my very first Colt’s-foot flower of 2018. Spring really is on its way!

180309 Colt's-foot

Spring messenger

16 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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#FloralFriday, British wildflowers, Ficaria verna, Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, signs of spring

180216 Lesser celandine (1)

Not only was it the favourite flower of William Wordsworth (who wrote three poems about it) and considered to be a herbal remedy for haemorrhoids (due to the shape of its roots), but the pretty Lesser celandine (was Ranunculus ficaria, now Ficaria verna) is one of the first floral heralds of spring.

The flowers are supposed to appear around the same time that the Swallows arrive back in Britain (hence the name Celandine, which comes from the Greek chelidon, meaning Swallow) (flower and bird are out of sync this year, though) so we need to keep our eyes on the skies, as well as on the ground.

180216 Lesser celandine (4)

Ring-ting!

09 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

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British flora, British wildflowers, primrose, William Allingham poem

‘Ring-ting! I wish I were a Primrose,
A bright yellow Primrose blowing in the spring!
The stooping boughs above me,
The wandering bee to love me,
The fern and moss to creep across,
And the elm-tree for our king!’

~ from William Allingham, ‘Wishing, A Child’s Song’. Allingham (1824-1889) was an Irish poet and man of letters.

180209 primroses (3)

Signs of spring: Marsh marigolds

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, parks, spring

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British wildflowers, Caltha palustris, Heath Park, marsh marigold, signs of spring

180202 Marsh marigolds (2)

Though it’s hard to believe today, as I look out the window at yet another grey rainy day and the temperature is set to go down all day not up, here is yet another sign that spring really is just around the corner. I spotted these Marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) blooming in a muddy pond in Cardiff’s Heath Park last week.

180202 Marsh marigolds (1) 180202 Marsh marigolds (3)

New Year Plant Hunt

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, winter

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#NewYearPlantHunt, British wildflowers, BSBI, New Year Plant Hunt, wildflowers in bloom, winter-blooming wildflowers

Did you do the New Year Plant Hunt?

Running from Saturday 30 December until today, Tuesday 2 January, this was the BSBI’s (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) seventh annual plant hunt event. The idea is to spend three hours on one of those days (or every day, if you’re as keen as Hoary mustard), in one location (or several, if you like to roam like Ivy), trying to find as many wild or naturalised plants that are flowering as you can. You then share your finds on social media and, most importantly, you also need to send your records in to the BSBI team so they can analyse the results (full details on their website here).

On the last day of 2017 I took myself off on a wander around Penarth township and marina – basically, within the square kilometre that is ST1872 – and was delighted to find 15 different wild plants in bloom. The Field scabious was a particular highlight!

The Winter Seventeen

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers, winter

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#TheWinterTen, #WildflowerHour, British wildflowers, Ham Hill, Wildflower Hour, wildflowers, winter wildflowers

171229 Ham Hill

Back in early November I blogged about Wildflower Hour’s winter challenge encouraging us all to try to find ten wildflowers still in bloom each week of winter. Well, I’ve been on holiday in Somerset over Christmas and, when my friend Sarah and I were out walking at Ham Hill on Christmas Eve, we took the challenge and were amazed to find not ten but seventeen wildflowers in bloom. Here (with apologies for the blurry pics – the wind was howling – and the lack of accurate names – I didn’t take my guide book on holiday) they are: ragwort, red campion, white dead nettle, hogweed, bramble, dog’s mercury, possible one of the Hawk’s-beard family, chamomile, cow parsley, ivy, a species of thistle and another of grass, wild parsnip, a variety of speedwell, the ever-reliable daisy, yarrow, and the equally reliable gorse.

p.s. Ham Hill is a fascinating place to explore if you’re ever in that vicinity and I’m already planning another walk there when I visit Sarah again in the summer.

171229 Ham Hill wildflowers (17)

Wildflowers at Barry Docks

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers

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Barry Docks, British wildflowers, Common toadflax, Daisy, Hemp agrimony, Hoary mustard, Ragwort, Red valerian, scabious, Wild parsnip, wildflowers, Yellow-wort

I caught the train to Barry Docks last Friday, hoping to get a good look at an uncommon bird (a Great northern diver) that had been making itself at home there for the previous week or so.

171121 Barry Docks

Unfortunately, the bird spent most of the two hours I was there happily swimming and diving several hundred yards away on the other side of the dock, but it was a gloriously sunny day and I did find lots of lovely wildflowers still in bloom around the edge of the docks so I was happy.