June 2023 - A Year in the Valley

Purple Flowers

On a mild summer’s evening we are walking round the garden and admiring this mass of purple flowers on the slope leading down into the watermeadow. On closer inspection the mass of purple comprises two distinct clumps of flowers – Mallow and Toadflax.

Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris)

This is quite tall. It can grow up to 1.2m. It flowers June-October and has pale mauve flowers with five petals arranged in a funnel-like formation and deep purple stripes running down each petal. The stalk is covered in fine hairs and the large leaves each have five lobes. The Common Mallow prefers a dry habitat i.e. roadside verges and sand dunes, hence growing on the ramp.

Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea)

Another tall plant growing up to 70cm with spikes of purple flowers at the top of the stem. The flowers have five purple petals. It is in the plantain family and prefers moist soil, stony ground, and walls. Although it is thought of as a weed, it is good for bees.

Daisy D

30 June 2023

Flowers

Common Mallow, Purple Toadflax

White Clover (Trifolium repens)

At last! An easy one! Was I glad to see a flower I recognised! And a little surprised if I’m honest, as I thought clover was confined to lawns and grassy stretches. It’s true that it isn’t a wetland flower. It’s also true that our watermeadow has dried out considerably, even the soggy middle that we call ‘Little Venice’ is merely claggy – and the clover was on the bank, which is populated with unidentified meadow grass and wildflowers. What I also didn’t know was that clovers are in the legumes family along with peas, vetches and the previously mentioned Birdsfoot Trefoil.

Daisy D

29 June 2023

Flowers

White Clover

Water Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis scorpioides)

I didn’t realise that there were so many types of Forget-Me-Nots. The best fit was the Water Forget-Me-Not, which obviously likes damp places, water margins. It has purple-tinted sheathed buds and long stems with branched buds and long oval leaves. It can grow up to 30cm, though I think it grows more mat-like in the water. This one is in a low-lying reliably damp part of the watermeadow.

Daisy D

28 June 2023

Flowers

Water Forget-Me-Not

Cleavers and bedstraws

The other week, I thought that the Cleavers were not so sticky and wondered whether it was just in the nature of their growing cycle. Now I have found hat the ‘non-sticky cleavers’ are, in fact Marsh Bedstraws (Gallium palustre) members of the same family. Marsh Bedstraws have hairless, square stems and tiny white four-petalled flowers. They like damp habitats.

Other bedstraws include Hedge Bedstraw and Heath Bedstraw, which are identifiable by their bristled leaves.

We definitely do have Cleavers scrambling over the drier parts of the garden including the water meadow bank that we call ‘Vole County’ due to the abundance of field voles and mice. The Cleavers have less significant white flowers, which have obviously escaped me and the ubiquitous sticky buds clinging to our gardening clothes.

Update – below is a photo of Cleavers (Galium aparine), showing their sticky burrs. Like the Marsh Bedstraw, the flowers were white four-petalled stars.

Daisy D

27 June 2023

Flowers

Cleavers, Marsh Bedstraw

Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea)

Another one that was difficult to identify. Was it Greater or Lesser Stitchwort? The main difference is in the size of the flowers 0.5-1cm diameter for Lesser Stitchwort and 2-3cm for Greater Stitchwort. Also although they both have five distinctive split white petals, the Greater Stitchwort’s seem from photos to be broader in proportion to the length, making them seem more crowded, also they are slightly flared.

The Lesser Stitchwort flowers May-September. The name ‘Stellaria Graminea’ means star-like, grass-like, and indeed in USA, where it is an introduced species, it is known as the Grass-leaved Stitchwort. The name ‘Stitchwort’ refers to the plant’s use as a herbal cure for a stitch in the side.

Daisy D

26 June 2023

Flowers

Lesser Stitchwort

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Herb Robert is distinguishable by its feathery leaves, red stems, and delicate pink five-petalled flowers. Each petal is embellished with tiny cerise pencil-lines drawing the eye to the centre of the flower. The herb has been used in folk medicine for treating nosebleeds, liver, and gallbladder trouble. It grows in hedgerows, woodland, and shingle.

Daisy D

25 June 2023

Flowers

Herb Robert

Housemartin – or the trouble with flies and birds

Well, the trouble with flies and birds is that they fly too fast to be photographed.

And one of the rules I had set myself was that I could only record species that I could provide photographic evidence of. So I have various pictures of a black dot in a blue sky (at least it was blue, not grey!).

Here we have, what I believe was a house martin. There were both swifts and house martins in the sky – the swifts screaming up and down the valley in Red Arrow-like formation and the house martins flitting here and there. I am starting a Tally page with a separate list of species that I have seen but not evidenced, so I will put the swifts there for the time being.

Also on that list will be midges, a dragonfly, butterflies, and other unidentified flies. There is a particular blue butterfly that only Mr C has seen because by the time I have grabbed my camera, it has long gone. This has happened several times.

The house martins nested on our house the summer we moved here. It was exciting. In the last few years, I think they have nested on houses uphill from ours and then they fly down between the houses to the valley.

Daisy D

24 June 2023

Birds

Housemartin, Swift

Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)

Birdsfoot Trefoil is a member of the Legumes family, which includes beans, peas, and vetches. When the flower matures, it will form into a cluster of seed pods, the shape of which gave rise to the ‘Birdsfoot’ name. ‘Trefoil’ is thought to originate from the arrangement of the leaves. In fact, it has many alternative common names, one of which is ‘Eggs and Bacon’ thought to derive from the red and yellow colouring, which also helped me identify it. This little flower grows in a variety of environments including roadside verges and grassland.

Since we came home from our holiday, I have continued to take photos for blog posts, whilst setting up a ‘proper’ website and doing a crash course on WordPress.org. It’s frustrating that I’m going to have to post retrospectively, but it was important that the blog’s year started on 5th June and I didn’t know it was going to be so problematic. The last time I posted a blog entry was over 5 years ago, so it’s probably not surprising that the technology has progressed.

Daisy D

23 June 2023

Flowers

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata)

Leafless stalks sprouting up to 40cm tall from a rosette of slim oval leaves, the white stamens burst sparkler- like from bullet-shaped cluster-heads of tiny flowers. It is quite robust and can grow in habitats from dry to wet. It likes disturbed soil, so can be found on roadsides or on cultivated land. Another one of those everyday plants that are actually quite intricate when you look at them close-up. Young leaves can be eaten and used in herbal teas.

Daisy D

22 June 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Ribwort Plantain

Soft Rush (Juncus effusus)

There is a Soft Rush and a Hard Rush. The Soft Rush, which we have nicknamed the ‘Spikey Plant’ is actually supposed to be more flexible than the Hard Rush. The main reason I’ve identified the Spikey Plant as a Soft Rush is the flowers, which are out now, are clustered in loose bunches of pinky-brown ears on soft green stems. The Soft Rush grows in a variety of habitats, including damp woodland, ditches, marshes and meadows. The pith used to be soaked in fat and used to make wicks in rush lamps.

Daisy D

21 June 2023

Sedges, rushes, grasses