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~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: Hoary mustard

82/366 Wildflowerhour : the Brassicas

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

American winter-cress, Brassicas, British wildflowers, Common whitelowgrass, Cuckooflower, Hoary mustard, Sea radish, Shepherd's purse, Wavy bitter-cress

This week’s challenge for #Wildflowerhour was to find as many of the Brassica family in flower as possible. I’m rather pleased with the number I’ve found, though I’m not 100% sure of my plant IDs, so if you think I’ve got any wrong, please do comment below. And I’ll edit this post if I need to, to reflect the corrected information.

200322 American winter-cress

American winter-cress (Barbarea verna): this is the identification I’m least confident about, as it’s a plant I’ve not seen before, and only a couple of flowers were actually open, but the leaf shape seems to fit.

200322 Common whitlow grass

Common whitlowgrass (Erophila verna): his plant is very common in my area but it’s one I often overlook because of its small size. It’s a pretty wee thing though.

200322 cuckooflowers

Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis): found earlier this week but this is a new photograph as I’ve since revisited the site. It’s certainly earlier in this particular location than in the other places I’ve usually found this plant, which, I suspect, is due to aggressive cutting by the local council in those other locations (Cardiff Bay and Hamadryad Park).

200322 hoary mustard

Hoary mustard (Hirschfeldia incana): Argh, so many plants that look similar! The only reason I’m reasonably confident about this one is that I’ve posted a photo of it previously on Twitter and an expert named it for me.

200322 sea radish

Sea radish (Raphanus raphanistrum ssp maritimus): This is another plant previously identified by one of the Twitterati and, though this was a slightly different location, it was also on the shores of Cardiff Bay so hopefully I’ve got this one right.

200322 wavy bitter-cress

Wavy bitter-cress (Cardmine flexuosa): The bitter-cresses always confuse me but, though it’s hard to see them, these flowers have six stamens, which is a key ID point to confirm this as Wavy rather than Hairy bitter-cress.

200322 Shepherd's-purse

Shepherd’s-purse (Bursa pastoralis): The purse-shaped seedpods of this lovely little plant make it unmistakable, thank goodness.

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Wildflowers at Barry Docks

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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.

171121 Hemp agrimony
171121 Common toadflax
171121 Daisy
171121 Scabious sp
171121 Yellow-wort
171121 Hoary mustard
171121 Red valerian
171121 Ragwort sp
171121 Sow-thistle sp
171121 Wild parsnip
171121 Cow parsley
171121 Bindweed sp
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Aliens in a Cardiff park

19 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

alien flora, alien plants, Canadian Fleabane, Fennel, French bartsia, Himalayan Balsam, Himalayan blackberry, Hoary mustard, Large-flowered evening primrose, Mary Gillham Archive Project, Small-flowered evening primrose, Tansy, White mignonette, Wild radish

On Sunday the Mary Gillham Archive Project teamed up with the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society to replicate a walk that Mary Gillham had participated in many moons ago, looking for aliens in Cardiff. Of course, I don’t mean the little-green-man type of alien – these were alien plants, though the definition of alien in this case seemed quite diverse. They may have been non-native plants that had arrived in Cardiff in the sand that served as ballast in the days of sailing ships, like Canadian Fleabane (Conyza canadensis).

170719 Cardiff naturalists
170719 Canadian fleabane

They may arrived in shipments of imported grain or bird seed or perhaps in bales of wool, like Hoary mustard (Hirschfeldia incana) and White mignonette (Reseda alba). Or they may have initially been decorative plants, like the Large-flowered evening primrose (Oenothera glazoviana) that was introduced from North America in the early 17th century and has since become naturalised.

170719 Hoary mustard
170719 Large-flowered evening primrose

As well as those plants named above, we also saw the following aliens: Small-flowered evening primrose (Oenothera cambrica) (introduced to cultivation in Britain in 1775); Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) (a garden escapee); French bartsia (Odontites jaubertianus) (mode of introduction unknown); Wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanistrum) (presumed to have spread as a weed of cultivation); Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) (probably introduced by the Romans); Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) (an escapee from cultivation); and, of course, the notorious Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) (introduced as an ornamental garden plant in 1839).

The aliens are among us and they’re thriving!

170719 Fennel
170719 Himalayan balsam
170719 Himalayan blackberry
170719 Small-flowered evening primrose
170719 Tansy
170719 Wild radish

Much of the information about the origins of these plants came from the Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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