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Tag Archives: winter colour

Midwinter wildflowers

17 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, wildflowers, winter

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Tags

British wildflowers, midwinter wildflowers, wildflowers in bloom, winter colour, winter wildflowers

Nature’s resilience amazes me! It’s the middle of winter, we’ve had some very hard frosts and really chilly days as well as torrential rain, yet I’ve still been able to find 25 species of wildflower in bloom this week.

These heroes are Alexanders, Bramble, a garden-escapee Campanula species, Creeping buttercup, Daisy, Dandelion, Field speedwell, Gorse, Groundsel, Herb Robert, Hogweed, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Lesser celandine, Mayweed species, Meadow buttercup, Nipplewort, Oxeye daisy, Primrose, Ragwort, Red valerian, Shepherd’s purse, Smooth sow-thistle, Sweet violet, Wild radish, and Winter heliotrope.

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Yellow brain fungi

08 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, winter

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British fungi, Tremella mesenterica, winter colour, winter fungi, Yellow Brain Fungus

Yellow is such a cheery colour, and the sight of these bright yellow fungi during a walk on a particularly grey, gloomy day certainly brought a smile to my face.

210108 yellow brain fungi (1)
210108 yellow brain fungi (2)

Although there are two very similar-looking, yellow, jelly-like fungi, I’m 99% sure these are Yellow brain fungi (Tremella mesenterica) because they are parasitic on the Peniophora species of crust fungi (rather than the Stereum hirsutum fungi, on which the other yellow fungi Tremella aurantia are parasitic), and you can, hopefully, just make out the Peniophora fungi (the lilac-grey crust on the wood) in the photo immediately below.

210108 yellow brain fungi (3)

I explained more about these two fungi in my blog Golden ears and Yellow brains, February 2017.

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33/366 This week in wildflowers

02 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#WildflowerHour, British wildflowers, winter colour, winter wildflowers

These are the blooming wildflowers I was able to find during yesterday’s and today’s local meanders, an impressive total of 21, due to the continuing mild weather we have been experiencing this winter.

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They are: Bramble; Comfrey – a nice surprise; Common ragwort (with a bonus Marmalade hoverfly, my first for 2020); a Crocus (probably planted, now wild); Daisy; one of the Dandelions; Gorse; Groundsel; Hairy bittercress; a female Hazel flower – a tree, I know, but I couldn’t resist the dash of pink; Herb Robert; Ivy-leaved toadflax; Lesser celandine – quite a lot of these flowering now; perhaps one of the Hawkweeds; Primrose; Red valerian; Snowdrop; one of the Sowthistles; a Speedwell species, possible Field Speedwell; an umbellifer; and the pretty pink of Winter heliotrope.

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5/366 Musk mallow

05 Sunday Jan 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, wildflowers, winter

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, Malva moschata, Musk mallow, wildflowers in bloom, winter colour, winter wildflowers

This Musk mallow (Malva moschata) must be the prettiest wildflower I’ve found still in bloom so far this year.

200105 musk mallow (1)

They can usually be found in dry places, like ‘chalk pastures, roadsides, churchyards and old quarries’, according to my Flora Botanica: this one was on a roadside verge next to Grangemoor Park, a former rubbish dump now park.

200105 musk mallow (4)
200105 musk mallow (3)

Plantlife’s website has some fascinating snippets about this pretty plant. Did you know …

  • The ancient Greeks used musk mallow to decorate friends’ graves.
  • Musk mallow was once an ingredient in soothing cough syrups and ointments, and it was also valued as an aphrodisiac!
  • In the Victorian “Language of Flowers” it is said to be a symbol of ‘consumed by love’, persuasion, and weakness.
200105 musk mallow (2)

Can you spot the itsy-bitsy spider?

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349/365 Another winter 10

15 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by sconzani in nature, wildflowers, winter

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Tags

#WildflowerHour, #winter10, British wildflowers, winter colour, winter wildflowers

I think I could have found more than ten wildflowers in bloom for this week’s wildflowerhour but my walks were a little restricted by the weather and chores. Still, I am happy to have seen these ten: a Buttercup species, Daisy, a Gorse species, Groundsel, Hemlock water dropwort, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Ragwort, Red clover and Red valerian, and the lovely Yarrow.

191215 buttercup sp191215 daisy191215 gorse sp191215 groundsel191215 Hemlock water dropwort191215 ivy-leaved toadflax191215 ragwort191215 red clover191215 red valerian191215 yarrow

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Christmas baubles

24 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

berries, fruit, hips, Nature's decorations, winter colour

Here are more of the beautiful ‘Christmas decorations’ currently adorning the otherwise-dreary December countryside, courtesy of Ma Nature, and some of these are even edible, by birds and animals if not necessarily by humans.

181222 christmas baubles (1)
181222 christmas baubles (2)
181222 christmas baubles (3)
181222 christmas baubles (4)
181222 christmas baubles (5)
181222 christmas baubles (6)

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Happy Floral Friday!

01 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#FloralFriday, purple flowers, winter colour, winter flowers

171201 Floral Friday (1)

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month, and hello winter!

171201 Floral Friday (2)

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Berries full to bursting

26 Sunday Nov 2017

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

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autumn colour, Black bryony, British flora, bryony, poisonous berries, red berries, Tamus communis, winter colour

The name ‘bryony’ is entirely appropriate for this plant as it comes from the Greek word bruein which, apparently, means ‘to be full to bursting’. However, though the berries of Black bryony (Tamus communis) are cherry-red and luscious-looking, please don’t be tempted to eat them as they are deadly poisonous.

171126 Black bryony berries (2)

There are, in fact, two plants with the bryony name in Britain, White bryony and Black, but they are not part of the same plant family. Rather surprisingly, Black bryony is the only member of the yam family to grow here but, again, don’t be tempted to eat its roots. In spring and summer, Black bryony’s long tangling vines can be found rambling over, under and through the shrubs and bushes of hedgerows and scrub-lands, and in autumn and winter, though the heart-shaped leaves brown and drop, the masses of red berries brighten up the countryside for many months.

171126 Black bryony berries (3)
171126 Black bryony berries (1)

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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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Recent blog posts

  • Pussy willow January 21, 2021
  • Wild word: pupa January 20, 2021
  • The big wet January 19, 2021
  • Grazing January 18, 2021
  • Midwinter wildflowers January 17, 2021

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