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Tag Archives: Viola hirta

In flower now

12 Sunday Apr 2026

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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Tags

British wildflowers, Cardamine pratensis, Common fumitory, Common Stork's-bill, Cornsalad, Cuckoo flower, Erodium cicutarium, Forget-me-not, Fumaria officinalis, Hairy violet, Honesty, Lamium purpureum, Lunnaria annua, Myosotis species, Red dead-nettle, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Valerianella locusta, Viola hirta

It seems every time I step out the door now I notice new, different wildflowers in bloom. These are some of this week’s finds; for no particular reason, I seem to have focused on the blue / pink colour tones.

The grassy area on Cardiff Bay’s Barrage is full of Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium), looking very lush.

Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta) is blooming in many of the local areas of waste ground, proving those areas are not really a waste at all.

Just in time for the emergence of the Orange-tip butterflies that use this wildflower as one of their larval plants: Cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis).

One of the Forget-me-not (Myosotis) species, possibly Common (M. sylvatica), though the plant did seem very small.

A wildflower with a lot of variation in its flower colours, Common fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), also known by the vernacular name Earth smoke.

At this time of year, the east and west paddocks at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park are tinged lilac with the flowers of Hairy violet (Viola hirta).

Escaped from its original garden plantings and now adorning the edges of local lanes, Honesty (Lunnaria annua).

This was the scene alongside the bike / pedestrian path around the edge of Grangemoor Park this week, where swathes of beautiful Red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) are in full bloom.

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Hairy violets

23 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

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Tags

British wildflowers, Hairy violet, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Viola hirta, violet species, violets

As I wrote in last Sunday’s post, it’s violet time, and I’ve since realised that I’ve not previously blogged about one violet species I see very often, the Hairy violet (Viola hirta).

This species and the Sweet violet (Viola odorata) are the only two to have rounded sepals, which narrows down the possibilities for identification purposes. Also, the sepal appendages are different: in Sweet violet, these are angled away from the flower’s stem, while the sepal appendages of the Hairy violet are pressed towards the stem.

Another distinguishing feature is the petal colour: the petals of the Hairy violet are paler, with a lilac hue, whereas those of the Sweet violet are a deep purple (unless they’re the white-coloured sub-species, of course).

The two violet species also grow in different environments. Sweet violets prefer the edges of woodland rides, and churchyards, and roadside verges, while Hairy violets are mostly found on dry calcareous grasslands, like those found in two of the fields at my local country park, Cosmeston Lakes, which is where I took these photos earlier today.

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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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