Small white brassicas

19 Sunday Mar 2023

Tags

Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassicas, brassicas with white flowers, British wildflowers, Capsella bursa-pastoralis, Cardamine flexuosa, Cardamine hirsuta, Cochlearia danica, Common whitelowgrass, Danish scurvygrass, Erophila verna, Hairy bitter-cress, Shepherd's purse, Thale cress, Wavy bitter-cress

This week I decided to have a go at the wildflower hour challenge to find the six brassica species that have small white flowers. Yesterday, when I wrote the first draft of this post, I had managed to locate five of them. During today’s walk, most unexpectedly, I found the sixth. You can find a pdf of the list, with photos and tips on how to identify each species, on dropbox (courtesy of the lovely botanist Dinky Moira).

230319 bitter-cress hairy and wavy

On the left above is Hairy bitter-cress (Cardamine hirsuta), whose flowers have four stamens and whose seed pods stand straight up, and on the right is Wavy bitter-cress (Cardamine flexuosa), with its six stamens and ‘sticky-out seed pods’ (Moira’s very apt description).

230319 common whitlowgrass

Common whitlowgrass (Erophila verna) seems to be everywhere at the moment, in particular alongside paths and at the edges of back lanes. It’s tiny but worth bending over for a look.

230319 shepherd's-purse

Shepherd’s-purse (Capsella bursa-pastoralis) is so named because of the shape of its seed pods, though, personally, I think they look like tiny hearts. Shepherd’s-heart anyone?

230319 thale cress

Thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) is a new plant for me so I was very chuffed to find this one. It’s rather like Shepherd’s purse but has slender rod-shaped seedpods.

230319 danish scurvygrass

And this is today’s find: Danish scurvygrass (Cochlearia danica), which I had seen before in Cardiff, alongside the River Taff near the city centre, but I hadn’t ventured that far during yesterday’s walk. Today, I found it on the edge of a pavement near Cardiff Bay, just one plant, but one is all I needed to complete this challenge.

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.

68/366 Pavement plants

08 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#PavementPlants, #WildflowerHour, British wildflowers, Coltsfoot, Common cornsalad, Daisy, dandelion, Herb Robert, Lesser Celandine, primrose, Red dead-nettle, Shepherd's purse

Now that Spring has sprung, the folks who run #WildflowerHour on social media are issuing weekly challenges for followers to focus their searches around. This week it was #PavementPlants, searching for any plants in bloom that were growing in the cracks or along the edges of their local pavements. Challenges like this do mean you get some odd looks from people when you’re photographing your finds but I’m very used to that these days.

Here’s what I found: Coltsfoot (I love how tenacious these plants are – they were pushing up between the cracks in an old set of steps connecting two local streets); Common cornsalad; Daisy; Dandelion; Herb Robert; Lesser celandine; Primrose; Red dead-nettle; and Shepherd’s-purse.

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Pavement plants

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants, wildflowers

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#PavementPlants, #WildflowerHour, British flora, Groundsel, Hairy bittercress, Lesser Celandine, plants in pavement, Shepherd's purse, wild plants, wildflowers

This week’s Wildflower Hour challenge was to check out your local pavement for #PavementPlants. As the challenge says: ‘It is amazing how many plants are able to eke out a living where they were never invited. Growing in seemingly inhospitable cracks and crevices, thriving where there is little soil, these tough little plants are often overlooked.’ So, it was eyes down this week as I wandered around Penarth and, though I decided to look just for plants that were flowering and ignore the ubiquitous grasses and mosses, I did manage to find a few little treasures in my local pavements, steps and paths.

180311 pavement plant groundsel

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)
I’m sure most people recognise Groundsel when they see it, as it’s very common in areas of disturbed ground. I just learned today that Senecio comes from the Latin for ‘old man’, a reference to the bare ‘scalp’ that remains once the plant’s fluffy white seeds have blown away.

180311 pavement plant hairy bittercress (2)

Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)
I was initially confused about which bittercress this was, Hairy or Wavy but my trusty wildflower guide tells me that Hairy has four stamens and Wavy usually has six, so that clinched it. Apparently, this plant is edible, though bitter – hence its name: I think I’ll pass.

180311 pavement plant lesser celandine

Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna)
Once known as Pilewort, as it was believed to be a remedy for haemorrhoids, Lesser celandine contains high levels of vitamin C and was also used to prevent scurvy.

180311 pavement plant Shepherd's purse