This is a non-native striped version of the reed canary grass that grows throughout the valley. It lives in our pond and has the potential to be invasive if not contained. It grows in dense clumps 60-90cm tall with flowers on slender stems. It prefers a moist, sunny habitat.
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Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Also known as Meadsweet or Mead Wort, I have seen the frothy white flowers in previous summers, but not last summer when I started the blog. I assumed it had died, and so when I spotted the distinctive leaves, I was very pleased. They are no longer where they used to be – in Diagon Alley, but right on the boundary with next door in a flourishing clump. Meadowsweet is often found growing in clumps. It prefers a damp habitat – damp meadows,
fields, and gardens. Its flowers are creamy-white frothy sprays with a sweet and medicinal scent. They come out from early summer. However, before that, meadowsweet can be identified by its red stem with small leaflets in between the regular leaves. The leaves have jagged edges and those at the end of the stem are 3-5 lobed with smaller leaflets growing behind them.
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Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)
Today Mr C and I went down to the watermeadow armed with secateurs and a wheelbarrow to get in and cut down hemlock water dropwort before it flowers. We had spotted a few in the last month or so, they are growing quite tall now, and although just cutting them down won’t kill them, it will prevent them from flowering and hopefully weaken them for the rest of the summer. We also pulled up any common nettles that were near the pathways.
While we were down there, I spotted a few things. One thing I noticed was that there is quite a lot of honeysuckle weaving amongst the grass in the far-left corner of the meadow. I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed it last summer as it would have been in bloom from July, but perhaps it was too obscured in the middle of a wild patch.
I identified it as Japanese honeysuckle – another non-native but common in the southern half of Britain. We have some in the top garden that twines among other shrubs but is not the same as potted specimens that we brought with us. I was surprised to find it so close to the stream – it must have been largely submerged over the winter. However, apparently Japanese honeysuckle doesn’t like dry soil, though it prefers soil which drains well. Also, it likes a sunny spot. It is a climbing shrub, which in the absence of trees and walls will probably continue to ramble. The leaves have a soft fuzz and seem to be growing in clumps separated by a slim woody stem, or runner. The flowers will be whitish when they arrive and the berries will be red, turning black. It is semi-evergreen, which means it loses its leaves for a short while before new growth starts.
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Limonia Fly
I thought this fly looked very striking with its patterned wing markings, but I assumed it was a crane fly. Not so. These are related to the crane flies (Tipulidae) but can be distinguished by the way they hold their wings at rest. Crane flies usually hold their wings outstretched, but limonia flies fold theirs along the back of their body. Both only have fore wings; the hind wings are reduced to little knobbles. Limonia flies also tend to have aquatic or semi-aquatic larvae, whereas Tipulidae have land-based larvae. I think this is a Limonia nubedulosa because of the wing pattern, stripy legs, and brown head.
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Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)
Wild strawberry or alpine strawberry? What’s the difference? The difference is that alpine strawberries don’t produce runners. We have wild strawberries in the top garden, they also like grassy banks and scrubland, but I have never seen one in the watermeadow before. This was growing at the foot of the bank under the sea buckthorns. The ground is a little raised compared to the middle of the meadow. Anyhow it survived the floods. It prefers sunny and dry locations but will tolerate partial shade. The flowers bloom from April onwards and tiny strawberries appear afterwards. It has leaves with toothed edges and five-petalled flowers with a yellow centre, which will turn into the tiny fruit. This is related to the cultivated strawberry, and they are in the rose family.
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Phantom Midge Larva
In my fishing net on Tuesday, I also found some of these. They were difficult to manoeuvre into the jam jar for photographing, so I lost a couple. At first I assumed they were mosquito larvae, but I realised that they didn’t have the hammer-head shape, rather a question-mark silhouette as you can see. Also, once in the jam jar, this one moved like a caterpillar, looping along the bottom, rather than wiggling zig-zag style through the water as I would expect a mosquito larva to do. I’m still not 100% sure, but I think this could be a phantom midge larva so-called because it is transparent – you can see its eyes and insides only. You can get other midge larvae that aren’t transparent and some look more like worms.
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Mayfly larva
I’m not sure why I didn’t get round to pond-dipping last summer, but I was determined to remedy that! Yesterday, while the sun was out, I took my fishing net down to the stream. The stream is still flowing fast, so all I had to do was to dip my net in. It took a few attempts before I caught anything live, mostly it was seeds and plant-litter. Then I found this little shrimpy-looking thing. Only it wasn’t a shrimp, it was a mayfly larva – almost transparent with three prongs on its tail and six tiny legs.
Living up to a year in the water, a mayfly adult lasts for only a day. It emerges winged, but not quite mature. It goes to hide for a few hours before shedding its skin a final time. Taking off as one of a cloud of mayflies, it will mate in flight and then die exhausted. The male will fly to dry land to die and the female, after laying eggs on the surface of the water, collapses. The eggs drop to the bottom of the water and stick to plants and stones. The Latin name for mayfly is “Ephemeroptera” which means “short-lived with wings.”
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Orange-tip
Obviously an early garden visitor, I was about to dismiss this butterfly as one of the ‘whites’ I spotted last summer, when I noticed a flash of orange! It flew into our neighbour’s garden, and I got a blurred and distant snap, but promised myself I’d go back down to the watermeadow later on. Luckily for me, the sun was still out at 5pm and Orange-tip came back to feast on this herb Robert.
I love the camouflage effect on the undersides of its wings – a bit like the green-veined white but a much bolder pattern. This is a male, as the females do not have the orange tip. However, both have the striking green patterning on their flip-side. They like cuckoo-flowers, and bittercresses. I spotted them on herb Robert, red campion, and three-cornered garlic.
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Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)
We had one of these in the top garden which wasn’t really flourishing but sending up suckers in the lawn. Now we have one growing on the bank and it seems to be doing quite well. Because the bank slopes up from the watermeadow, it is drier and because we leave it wild, it seems to attract ‘garden escapees’, as well as grass, ferns, and brambles. We knew this as Tree of Heaven, but I now discover that its common name is actually Staghorn Sumac, so-called because of the velvety coating of the branches and crimson fruit clusters. In the autumn the foliage turns to flame with vivid shades of red, orange, and yellow. They are usually found near gardens or cultivated land, escaping by means of suckers which can extend a long way from the tree. Staghorn sumac originates from North America but has been growing in the UK since the seventeenth century.
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Red Campion (Silene dioica)
I first saw this back in June, but there was so much to log on the website that the photo got overlooked and then it was too late – the flowers had finished. Next door’s bank has had at least one red campion just about all year round, but we had to wait until yesterday to spot this one on our bank. It looks a little sorry for itself but beloved by pollinators, this one has befriended two ladybirds –
the second one is on the next tier of leaves down.
Its purple buds open into deep pink flowers with five notched petals and a white centre. It annoys me that it is known as red campion when it is clearly pink!! It likes lightly shaded places – woodland, grassland, banks, hedgerows, and verges.
There is much mythology surrounding the red campion – it is said that it guards the bees’ honey stores and that it offers a hiding place for fairies.
