06 Sunday Feb 2022
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Despite being battered by drenching rain and storm-force wind gusts these hardy daffodils were still looking gorgeous.
In fact, the remaining water droplets seemed only to add to their beauty.
29 Sunday Aug 2021
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Tags
bright summer wildflowers, British wildflowers, late summer wildflowers, yellow flowers, yellow wildflowers
A selection of the wildflowers in bloom during these last weeks of summer – last week, my video featured flowers of more mellow, subtle hues; this week, you’ll need your sunglasses as these are the brights!
Featuring Agrimony, Bird’s-foot trefoil, Bristly oxtongue, Creeping buttercup, Creeping cinquefoil, Dandelion, Fleabane, Gorse, Honeysuckle, Meadow buttercup, Meadow vetchling, Melilot, Mouse-ear hawkweed, Nipplewort, Ragwort, Scarlet pimpernel, Smooth sow-thistle. Tutsan, Wild parsnip, Wood avens, Yellow corydalis, and Yellow-wort.
22 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted in flowers, plants, wildflowers
I had to laugh when I read in Flora Britannica that, because this plant’s large leaves feel like they are covered in soft grey wool: ‘In a more modern – and practical – vein, mullein has been nicknamed “the Andrex plant”, and its leaves used accordingly.’ I cannot attest to the veracity of this statement!
This is Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus), which also has some wonderful, less recent vernacular names: Aaron’s Rod, Hagtapers, Adam’s flannel, and Our Lady’s candle. These names are no doubt inspired partly by those leaves and also by the enormous yellow-flowered spike, which can grow to four or five feet tall. Mullein is a biennial plant: in its first year there is just a rosette of leaves, and it’s not till its second year that the flower spike grows.
20 Sunday Jun 2021
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
We’ve rain today, the gentle soft rain that I’ve come to associate with life in Wales, but I’m not complaining. It’s much needed, by the land, its plants and its beasties, after a couple of weeks of strong sunshine and baking heat. To counteract the dull grey I see out my window, I’m about to compile today’s post, a little video full of summer sunshine, with some of the yellow-flowered wildflowers currently in bloom. I know I’ve done this before, and quite recently, but I do so enjoy the bright cheeriness of yellow.
Pictured today are: Bird’s-foot trefoil, Creeping buttercup, Creeping cinquefoil, a Dandelion species, Dyer’s greenweed, Evening primrose, Meadow buttercup, a Melilotus species, Mouse-ear hawkweed, Nipplewort, Pineapple weed, Reflexed stonecrop, Silverweed, Smooth sow-thistle, Tormentil, Wood avens, Yellow iris, Yellow loosestrife, Yellow pimpernel, Yellow water-lily, and Yellow-wort.
09 Sunday May 2021
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
A month ago, I shared some of the yellow-flowered wildflowers I’d found for the weekly #WildflowerHour challenge. In the weeks since, more yellow flowers have begun to bloom and, as today’s weather (I’m writing this on Saturday, as we sit under a heavy rain warning) is grey and windy and very wet, I fancy some bright sunshiny yellow. So, here we go …
The flowers are the butterflies’ favourite Bird’s-foot trefoil and the vibrant bushes of Broom. Although I shared some of these last time, I couldn’t resist a Shrew’s-eye view of more Cowslips. The buttercups are beginning to take over from the Lesser celandine as Nature’s yellow carpet in the meadows – these are Creeping and Meadow buttercups. Prickly sow-thistles line the edges of the lane behind my house, and Spotted medick is now brightening up the pavement verges. I’d glimpsed Yellow archangel last time but now these lovely spikes are popping up everywhere in my local woodland, a beautiful compliment to the Bluebells.
11 Sunday Apr 2021
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
This week’s Wildflower Hour challenge was to find yellow-flowered wildflowers currently in bloom. Here are my finds – a blast of spring sunshine to enjoy this Sunday evening:
Colt’s-foot, Dandelion, Gorse
Lesser celandine, Marsh marigold, Meadow buttercup
Groundsel, Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (perhaps a bit of a stretch to say this is yellow, but it does have ‘golden’ in its name), Yellow archangel
Prickly sow-thistle, Cowslips, Ragwort
Pushing the envelope on these ones but … Alexanders (greenish-yellow), Primrose (buttery yellow), Pussy willow (not strictly a wildflower, but I’m having it)
14 Sunday Jun 2020
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
Agrimony, British wildflowers, Creeping cinquefoil, Dyer’s greenweed, Evening-primrose, Prickly sow-thistle, Silverweed, Smooth sow-thistle, yellow flowers
It’s grey here in south Wales today, which is not a bad thing as we desperately need the accompanying rain, and it also makes me appreciate even more the days when vibrant, sunshiny, cheery yellow is the dominant colour of my day. Here’s some of the yellow that’s been brightening my walks in recent days.
Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), found at several local sites, and the food plant for the larvae of a couple of rare moths, though I’ve yet to find any.
Evening-primrose (Oenothera agg). There are several different species, which can be difficult to differentiate, and they also hybridise with each other, hence the ‘agg’.
Silverweed (Potentilla anserina). The Plantlife website has some fascinating information about this pretty plant – did you know, for example, that Roman soldiers used to pad their shoes with Silverweed to ease their feet on long marches?
Prickly sow-thistle (Sonchus asper). Most thistles have flowers in shades of pink-lilac-purple but not this one. I’ve included two photos, one to show the structural beauty of the flower, one to show the prickly leaves.
Smooth sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus). Another sow-thistle, but without those pesky prickles, and with flowers a more lemon-yellow.
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), a plant of hooking-bristle seed heads, as you may remember from my earlier post Hooked, September 2019.
Creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans), a plant that thrives on waste and bare ground.
17 Monday Feb 2020
A new Spring flower has appeared in my local area, this time six bursts of the bright sunshine yellow that is Coltsfoot, the flower that appears before its leaves. I had just been sheltering, rather ineffectively, from a short sharp shower of rain when I spotted the flowers beside the path ahead of me. What a delight!
31 Sunday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers
Now before you feel the need to correct the spelling of ‘merry-gold’ in my title, let me just say that it was deliberate because I find Marsh marigolds such cheery, merry flowers, and it always makes me smile to see them. I spotted some yesterday in Cardiff’s Heath Park, and they’re also in full flower at the moment in Penarth’s Alexandra Park, where I went for a meander earlier today.
12 Saturday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, winter
In truth, there is nothing wild about these gorgeous daffodils – they must’ve been planted several years ago in the wide verges near Cardiff Bay Hospital, but it was such a delight to see their bright and glorious little faces bobbing in the light breeze on a grey day. And they were rather nicer than the thick sticky mud I trudged through as I made a circuit of Grangemoor Park.
earthstar 
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