Aquatic and other plants Archives - A Year in the Valley

A puddle of mud – Filamentous Algae

Little Venice is drying out and the other day I managed to get a bit closer to see what was going on. I was surprised to see little plants sprouting out of the mud and rugs of green slime draped over the path.

I looked up green algae, as that’s what it looked like, and found out that filamentous algae, or pond slime, is algae that looks like thin green threads. It supports many microscopic animals and provides food for other small animals. The slime floats on the surface of the water and then when the water is dried out, it dies and forms a white crust. I have seen this happening as puddles dry out.

Small plants are sprouting up out of the mud as the flooding dries out.

Daisy D

19 January 2024

Aquatic and other plants

Filamentous Algae

Common Water-starwort (Callitriche stagnalis)

We had a mystery a couple of months ago. Mr C spotted a small plant sprouting out of the long grass and across the footpath (see below)

I took a photo but was having trouble identifying it – rosettes of oval leaves on a fleshy stem. I gave up for a while, but recently we noticed a round patch of leaves floating on top of the flooded Diagon Alley, and another two patches have popped up in Little Venice. I managed to get a closer photo of the patches now that the water is subsiding a little bit. And I think I have identified them as Common water-starwort.

I’m overjoyed at having a ‘new’ plant at this time of the year. Of course, it isn’t new – it’s been there all along. I just haven’t been able to identify it. This plant is found in mud or shallow water that is stagnant or slow-moving. The leaves have five veins and are nice oval shape (neither too rounded nor too elongated, which eliminates some of the other types of water-starwort). It is not the insignificant white flowers, but the rosettes of leaves which form the mats of stars on the surface of the water. And that’s where the name comes from.

Common water-starwort prefers cooler weather and is most active in the spring and autumn, going dormant in the summer and winter, which is why we didn’t spot them till after the summer. They flower May-September and drop their seeds into the mud after flowering. We haven’t spotted flowers yet, but perhaps we will notice them in the spring.

Daisy D

17 December 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Common Water-starwort

Common Ivy (Hedera helix)

Common Ivy can be found in a variety of habitats – from woodland to wasteland. They do not like extremes – arid or waterlogged. Common Ivy wraps itself around the fences and walls of our garden. The watermeadow is no exception. This ivy can be found twining round the wooden fence.

There are two types of ivy in the UK – Common Ivy and Atlantic Ivy, which is more common in the West Country. This is Common Ivy. There are two types of leaf. The immature leaves have 3-5 lobes (5-7 for Atlantic Ivy), as shown in the picture, but the mature leaves do not have lobes and tend to be oval or heart-shaped.

The flowers appear in the autumn and are dome-shaped clusters of small white blooms which turn into black berries.

Ivy is a valuable food source for many types of insects and birds. The berries are eaten by birds, including woodpigeons and blackbirds. The nectar and pollen are food for wasps, bees, hoverflies, and caterpillars. The structure of the evergreen plant provides shelter for bats, small mammals, birds, and insects.

Ivy clings to trees, walls, and fences, but is not parasitic, so it does not kill trees. It has its own root system and can fend for itself.

The Latin name Hedera means ‘clinging’ and helix is Latin for spiral, so Hedera helix means the clinging plant that spirals. It is in the same family, Araliaceae, as the False Caster Oil Plant. The flowers have a similar appearance.

Daisy D

10 December 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Common Ivy

Ferns

We have a small Fernery, in which we have planted three small tree ferns, a hart’s tongue fern and a Boston fern, but there are other ferns in the watermeadow that were already there.

Left is the bank underneath the decking which looks out over the watermeadow, where everything is left to grow wild, and the mice and voles are left alone. I hadn’t realised that it caught any sunshine at all, but it turns out that the evening sun slants in at this time of year – and there’s another fern.

Below is a Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) growing on a more exposed bit at the foot of the bank. It turns out, as per usual, that there is no one ‘common’ fern. I decided that this was a Male Fern as its little leaflets or pinnules have serrated edges and rounded tips. The sori are the little seed-structures on the underside of the leaves and they are round and in two parallel rows which is another indication that it is a Male Fern.

Daisy D

01 October 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Ferns, Male Fern

Brambles (Rubus fruticosus)

Sometimes, when you’re looking for something new, you see something that’s been there all along. Brambles are an example, they are rambling through the bank (above the Fernery), and we don’t really like their tenacity, but they are underpinning and fixing the other plants in place, which is good for helping to prevent the bank eroding. We used to have eight pampas grasses on the bank and the brambles wove around them in a tangled mess, but we removed the pampas grasses last summer and in the craters that were left behind we planted a silver birch and a mountain ash and let the bank itself fill in the gaps. It did this fairly quickly with grasses, ferns, and flowers. The brambles could have taken over but haven’t so far and a nice balance has been struck. We’re aware that this happy situation may not last though as brambles are prolific at sending out runners, which touch down, grow roots, and pop up a new plant.

Daisy D

27 September 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Brambles

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

Water Horsetail (Equisteum fluviatile)

This is quite an odd looking plant. We had noticed this, ribbed bright green stalk with junctions. At the junctions rings of upward pointing green branchlets can grow. Or the stems can remain bare of branches. I have read that it is the fertile plants that don’t have branches, but I’ve also read that branches occur in nutrient-rich places. Water Horsetail has a rounded cone, whereas Marsh Horsetail has a pointed cone. The cones turn black in June-July when the spores ripen. It likes a wet habitat – shallow water, damp ground and watermeadows.

Daisy D

20 June 2023

Aquatic and other plants

Water Horsetail