Flowers Archives - Page 2 of 6 - A Year in the Valley

Common Figwort (Scrophularia nodosa)

Another dock-looking plant, the leaves are more scalloped and shaped, so I looked it up and found it was a figwort. With its square red stems, it has to be a Common Figwort. It is a perennial that likes a damp habitat, sunny or shady, woodland, ditch, or open riverside. The plant is used by herbalists to treat skin diseases, hence the Latin name which refers to the disease scrofula. The common name figwort also refers to the Roman slang for piles, for which it is also a remedy!

The leaves in the foreground of the picture are young teasels, which are invading some parts of the garden and fernery. Also some bedstraw/cleaver shoots.

Daisy D

15 April 2024

Flowers

Common Figwort, Dock

Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre)

There are two tall thistles growing in Vole County and I’ve been watching them growing up from spikey rosettes. It has still been hard to identify them. I was trying to decide between Marsh Thistle and Welted Thistle. In the end I’ve gone with marsh thistle. This is mainly because of the purple tinge to the edges of the leaves and spines. Also because of the habitat – obviously they prefer damp meadows and marshland.

The stem is quite magnificent – downy, with spiny wings running down its length. The purple flowers burst out from spherical buds, papered with many tightly-pressed green bracts called phyllaries. They grow in clusters at the ends of branches.

Daisy D

13 April 2024

Flowers

Marsh Thistle

Cornsalad (Valerianella)

There are five British species of Cornsalad, but you can only identify which it is by the shape of the fruit. They like disturbed ground, hedge banks and stony habitat, and there were several clumps of this around the base of the ramp and Vole County. They are long stems topped with bunches of minute blue flowers, nested in fresh green leaves. One of the species, V. carinata, is also known as Lamb’s Lettuce and is edible.

Daisy D

12 April 2024

Flowers

Cornsalad

Wavy Bitter-cress (Cardamine flexuosa)

‘Cress’ in this instance means ‘cross’ and refers to the cross-shaped arrangement of the flower petals. I think the distinctive leaves look slightly cross-shaped as well. Wavy bitter-cress is slightly hairy, though not as much as hairy bitter-cress. It has tiny white flowers, which stand out in the dappled shade of docks and sedges at the foot of the ramp. It lives in stony, shady, damp ground. This was at the foot of our ramp, in the shade of grass.

At first, I thought this was a narrow-leaved bitter-cress, but not all the leaves are narrow. Also, the narrow-leaved bitter-cress doesn’t often have proper petals, just stamens, and isn’t at all hairy. Hairy bitter-cress flowers have only four stamens, whereas wavy bitter-cress has six.

Daisy D

11 April 2024

Flowers

Wavy Bitter-cress

Fringed Willowherb (Epilobium ciliatum)

This is a mystery left over from September when I spotted the flower peeping out from under the decking. A perennial, it is now coming up again for the summer and I’ve been able to identify it as a Fringed Willowherb, also known as American Willowherb, as it was first recorded in the British Isles in 1891. It prefers a damp habitat but can also be seen in gardens and roadsides. The flowers are tinier than the Great Willowherb.

Daisy D

04 April 2024

Flowers

American Willowherb, Fringed Willowherb, Great Willowherb

Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum)

I noticed this under the sea buckthorn trees in the shady part of the watermeadow. It’s clearly a garden escapee as we have Tutsan bushes in the top garden, only we know it as Hypericum. It’s odd that we didn’t know the common name, but only the Latin one! Tutsan comes from the French phrase ‘tout saine’ which means all healthy. However, the berries are poisonous to humans, but not to birds, which are responsible for spreading it into the countryside, where it is commonly found on banks and verges, though it prefers a damp habitat. It has yellow buttercup-like flowers with five petals framing a big bunch of showy stamens. The berries turn from orange to black, as in the picture. It is in the same family as the St. John’s Worts, but although they all have similar flowers, only Tutsan has the black berries.

Daisy D

02 April 2024

Flowers

Tutsan

Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

You know it’s spring when the primrose flowers! I didn’t even know that we had one in the watermeadow, and it looks as though it’s been blooming for a while. It was at the foot of the stone steps under the sea buckthorns.

Primroses are common and widespread. They thrive in woodland, grassland, and hedgerows. They are an important food source for early butterflies and I’m please to say that in between all the rain, we have seen peacock, red admiral and ‘white’ (from a distance) butterflies down there already.

Daisy D

01 April 2024

Flowers

Three-cornered Garlic (Allium triquetrium)

It’s the season for wild garlic. There are two types: Ramsons and Three-cornered Garlic. Ramsons has a very different white flower with multiple six-petalled blooms shooting out from a central point on the stem – a typical allium shape – and broad, pointed leaves.

This three-cornered garlic has bell-shaped flowers, the petals of which are white with a green stripe down the centre, and slim pointed leaves. It looks like a white bluebell. The stem is triangular in cross-section, hence three-cornered, and it is also known as the Three-cornered Leek.

Three-cornered garlic is the predominant wild garlic in the West Country, as it thrives in the milder climate. It is considered an invasive species but is totally edible and can be treated like leeks or spring onions. In the watermeadow, it grows on the ramp and sprouts out from the sides of the steps. We don’t have a lot, but its garlicky scent is strong and quite appetising.

Daisy D

21 March 2024

Flowers

Ramsons, Three-cornered Garlic

Creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans)

There are some small pretty 5-7 lobed leaves with pinked edges growing in Vole County. It is interesting that when I identified the thyme-leaved speedwell a few weeks ago, I noticed the cinquefoil leaves in the photo (below) which was taken back in August. It was too long ago to post them, but then I spotted that they are now growing again and I was able to take the top up-to-date photo. It has rich purple stems and the yellow buttercup-like flowers bloom June-September.

The creeping cinquefoil likes waste ground, verges, hedgerows, and sand dunes. It grows low – less than 20cm high and spreads by growing runners which arch across the ground and root at nodes when they touch down again.

It is seen by some as a weed but is good for ground cover and is a pollinator, providing food and habitat for insects and small creatures, notably bees which like its nectar and pollen, and caterpillars which like its leaves.

Picture left is Thyme-leaved Speedwell from August 2023 – Creeping Cinquefoil is in the top right of the picture.

Daisy D

16 February 2024

Flowers

Creeping Cinquefoil, Thyme-leaved Speedwell

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)

I’ve been watching this clump of dark, mottled heart-shaped leaves, wondering how a cyclamen got into the watermeadow. I held off identifying it until it flowered. Then fat yellow buds appeared on single vertical stalks. The fat yellow buds had dark purply-yellow outsides to the petals. I started research and anticipated Lesser Celandine.

Lesser Celandine loves the damp – ditches, stream banks and damp woodland, shady spots in gardens, hedgerows, and meadows. They flower between January and April – bright yellow stars with eight-twelve slim petals. The leaves have purple stalks with a groove running down them.

They are a perennial, but this was the first time I’ve noticed them, perhaps because the clump was nestled well down amongst the old, dead grass, and in past years I haven’t ventured down to the watermeadow in the winter. Also, I have now seen a second clump of similar leaves next to one of the pathways and possibly a third spindly clump under the decking.

Ficaria means ‘fig’ and another name for the Lesser Celandine is Fig Buttercup.

Not purple yet, but you can clearly see the grooved leaf stems

Daisy D

11 February 2024

Flowers