Three-nerved Sandwort, Dame's Violet and Foxglove

All these plants are found in local lanes and woodland.                                                                                 

                                 Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia

Harrap's Wild Flowers says this member of the Chickweed family is locally common on shady hedgebanks and that is exactly where I spotted it on higher ground in the Wye Valley. The ivy leaf shows the scale of this tiny flower. The key ID features for me are the unsplit petals that are shorter than the sepals and the leaves with prominent 3-5 parallel veins. This example has one missing petal, of course.

  Dame's Violet,  Hesperis matronalis

Commonly grown in gardens this one is naturalised in a hedgerow. It had been  introduced from Southern Europe in 1375 and was recorded in the wild by 1805. It is tall and upright with arrow shaped leaves all the way up the stem. The flowers are large, fragrant and in this plant deep pink. They range from white to deep purple.                                                     

   

                       

  Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea

Native Foxglove, a member of the Veronicaceae family, has a long folk history. Grigson in The Englishman's Flora is again my source. To me some of the local names he gives are very visual. Bee-catchers, for example, a Somerset name, will resonate with anyone who has watched bees disappear inside them. There are many names concerned with fairies: Fairy Fingers is again a Somerset name. As a reaction to this and the belief that fairies, or even goblins, could use the Foxglove for or against you came names with a religious connotation: Lady's Glove, Lady's Fingers and Virgin's Fingers. A name was needed for botanists and apothecaries and Digitalis was coined in 1542 from a German name for thimble.

William Withering worked on the plant in 1785 and proved it was a good diuretic and acted on the heart but the limited science of the time could not establish why. Later science turned the source of old remedies into a major drug.

The flower is so familiar and distinctive it scarcely needs description. The flowers pinkish -purple or white, spotted darker within the throat guard sentinel-like many a woodland walk around here in the Wye Valley. 

This completes another week of #365Days of Botany. I hope to post again midweek.

Buttercups and Daisies

Buttercups and Daisies being native plants provide us with traditions and botanical analysis stretching back centuries.

Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens 

Identified by spreading sepals and a grooved flower stalk this has been the subject of a study which tries to assess the age of meadows by counting the number of R. repens with petals in excess of 5 in each 100 specimens.  This one, with many others,was on a woodland ride in the Wye Valley last week.

You may find the following link interesting. I first found out about this in 2017 when I found a 13 petalled flower on the same ancient woodland ride.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2729631/

This is the flower!

This final Creeping Buttercup, again with more than 5 petals, is in my garden which 40 years ago was, I believe, an old meadow within an orchard. I'm doing my best to keep this area natural!

Grigson, in The Englishman's Flora, says that a Somerset name for buttercups is Gildcap which leads me to recent research by Cambridge University into the reflective nature of the flower. Pigments in the petals absorb blue - green light, leaving mostly yellow light reflected out. The smooth surface of the petals reflects but air gaps within the petals effectively double the gloss. This glow gives us not just the children's game "Do you like butter?" but attracts pollinators. Also the Guardian reported that solar energy is collected in the cup, warming the flower to make it more attractive to pollinators.

Meadow Buttercup, Ranunculus acris

This Buttercup is taller than the others, the flower stalk is smooth and the sepals spread.

The name Buttercup seems to have been late into general use perhaps not before the middle of the eighteenth century. Gerard used Butter-flower in 1597 for R. acris and R. repens.

Daisy, Bellis perennis 

I have saved this plant until now for #365DaysofBotany to celebrate Plantlife's #NoMowMay.  I have hundreds in the garden supporting pollinators. The English name comes from the Old English dages-eage meaning day's eye and referring to its opening and closing with the sun.

It has a long history of being a healing herb,  called Bone-flower in the North of England. Fiona Stafford in The Brief Life of Flowers recalls Chaucer's words which describe it as filled with "vertue and of alle honour". He saw the flower as an emblem of the perfect woman and devoted wife.

Oxeye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare 

The name I knew as a child, Moon Daisy, is more authentic as an English name than Oxeye which only began in the sixteenth century. It too has a long history as a healing herb. Boiled up and drunk it was believed to ease asthma and could either be applied or drunk to heal wounds and ulcers. It was believed on the continent that to hang it on the house guarded against lightning. English names like Thunder Daisy suggest we believed the same.

I have it in my meadow area and love the way it turns towards the sun, especially in the late afternoon as here.

Four plants take the total to #365DaysofBotany Day 143. I hope the history and folklore of these familiar plants is as interesting to you as it is to me. It is also a  small opportunity also to celebrate #NoMowMay 

Red Valerian, Cornsalad and Forget-me-not

Red Valerian, Centhranthus ruber

A member of the Valerianaceae family this is common around here on the dry stone walls. It's a plant from Central and Southern Europe and was a introduction to gardens in the sixteenth century. Well known by the early eighteenth century it has acquired a number of contrasting local names. Grigson in The Englishman's Flora cites American Lilac in Devon, with Bloody Butcher and Queen Anne's Needlework in Somerset. Bouncing Bess, as it is also known in Devon, probably refers to its bouncy blowing in the wind which it was certainly doing on the day I took these photos!

It has large heads of  5-petalled flowers each with a backward directed fine spur. The foliage is blue-green and the stem leaves are opposite and stalkless.

Apparently, it is rather bitter but just about edible in a salad. 

Common Cornsalad, Valerianella locusta

Another member of the Valerian family, but a native, this is may be more reliable on the plate as it has been cultivated as Lamb's Lettuce. The pale lilac flowers are tiny, 5-petalled and in clusters.

The stems are finely ridged and repeatedly  forked with a pair of leaves at each fork.

Forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica 

A member of the Boraginaceae family, a native but probably a garden escapee here. The flowers are large and bright and though not shown the hairs on the stem are erect along its length.

The calyx, developing into this tulip shaped seed pod, is densely covered with curved hairs and many hooked ones.

The name Forget-me-not as applied to the species but not originally to Myosotis sylvatica is, of course, romantic in origin. If you wore it you were not forgotten by your lover. There is a German tale of a knight who picked Water Forget-me-not for his lady as they both walked along a river. He fell in and drowned but threw the flowers to his lady as he was swept away. A warning to those of us who botanise by water!

This brings me to Day 139 of #365DaysofBotany: posting 365 different plants over 365 days. More later in the week. I hope you are enjoying the read. 

Honesty, Cleavers, Common Vetch, Elder

Honesty, Lunaria annua

A plant I have never been able to grow in my garden thrives in a lane in the Wye Valley.  A native of the Balkans it has been in cultivation in the UK since at least 1570 and had escaped to the wild by 1597.

The seed pods may give it its popular name of Honesty, being semi- transparent, and the Latin name probably refers to their being moon shaped and moon coloured. They are just beginning to develop here.

Cleavers, Galium aparine

A member of the Bedstraw family, Rubiaceae, its tiny, delicate  flowers are easily missed. Here it is scrambling along a local woodland path. The stem has hooked downward bristles on the angles. Leaves are bristly hairy, edged with backward pointing prickles and with a fine point at the tip.

Its popular name, Cleavers, obviously comes from bristles and hooks as it cleaves to passing creatures. In Dorset it was called Huggy-me-close. 

It was used medicinally to ease piles, skin diseases and scurvy.  

Common Vetch, Vicia sativa 

This plant from the Pea family,  Fabaceae, is both native and introduced. It was grown everywhere by farmers as early forage. These are in my garden wild area.

The bright pink- purple flowers are one or two together on very short stalks. The leaflets are alternate and have a shallowly notched tip containing a small point, the mucro.

Elder, Sambucus nigra 

Did ever a plant have so many associations both negative and positive? Grigson in his Englishman's Flora devotes over two pages to it. It was associated with the Devil, was the reputed tree of the Crucifixion and the tree Judas hanged himself from. It was foolhardy to make a cradle out of it. 

He also focuses on the more positive but I must mention The Brief Life of Flowers by Fiona Stafford which has a really interesting  chapter on elderflowers covering elderflower cordial, the use of elderflower ointment in the First World War on injured horses and many other historical details.

The flowers were used dried in medicines for eye and throat infections and  a tea was brewed to guard against colds and flu. It was used to fade out freckles and to relieve rashes and skin complaints.

It was great value as a toy: the hollowed out stems made great peashooters and the flowers could be used in dressing up games. 

The individual flowers are 5mm across, the corolla is split into 5 petals and there are 5 stamens and creamy white anthers.

This brings me to Day 136 of #365DaysofBotany. More on Sunday in #Wildflowerhour 

A Cabbage, Two Carrots and a Pea

The springtime woodland margins are lit up around here first by the white glow of Garlic Mustard, then Pignut and Cow Parsley. Vetches have joined in and I include Bush Vetch here.

 Garlic Mustard, Alliara petiolata

I saw this member of the Brassicaceae family in bloom back in April and the first photo is from that time. The stem leaves are bluntly toothed and pointed.

The seed pods which are held nearly upright are beginning to develop now and are lightly beaded as shown by the  second picture taken this week.

It has many local names including Jack-in -the- Hedge and Penny-in-the- Hedge. According to William Turner's Herbal  in 1538 it was used as a spring sauce and even in 1848 it is mentioned as a salad ingredient.

Pignut, Conopodium majus

Again a native, this plant is from the Apiaceae family. The stems grow from a single dark brown tuber hence the name. In a few parts of the country it has been called Earthnut. It has been a medicine and a food. 

It's a delicate plant with stem leaves cut into long narrow strap shaped lobes. For me that's the key ID feature. I see it on woodland path sides. The umbels are light and airy too. I see it as individual plants rather than in a great mass.

Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris 

Another native, this member the Apiaceae family forms great clouds on roadsides and here on a woodland ride.

When separating this from other umbellifers I look for bracteoles but no bracts. I hope that can be seen here.

Bush Vetch, Vicia sepium

This native is in the Pea family, Fabaceae. This low grower is scattered in shady parts of the meadow area in my garden.

The first one is older and more faded than the second. Both show, the characteristic for me, leaves which are divided into oval- oblong leaflets blunt at the ends but with the fine bristle point. The flowers are in clusters.

It has some interesting folk names. Crow - peas, I like to think, comes from the seed pods which are black. It's called Twaddgers in Yorkshire.  No theory on that one!

This brings me to #365DaysofBotany Day 132 . I generally go out for a walk twice a week now so posting twice seems to fit the spirit of the challenge I undertook in January.

I hope you enjoy reading it and finding out some plant history.

Bugle, Greater Celandine and Greater Periwinkle

Plants for these three days of #365DaysofBotany are native Bugle; Greater Celandine introduced in Roman times and Greater Periwinkle introduced in reign of Queen Elizabeth and naturalised within fifty years.

Bugle, Ajuga reptans

This plant had spread out of woodland to a verge where it had formed an extensive patch. The leaves are glossy, dark green with a touch of purple. The stems are erect and bear whorls of blue flowers marked with white. The lower lip of the flower has three lobes typical for me of the Lamium family.

Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus

Growing exactly as the book says at the base of a wall, this is a member of the Poppy family, Papaveraceae. The four petalled flowers are relatively small and grow in loose clusters on a plant that can be almost a metre tall.

The name Chelidonium may have come from its flowering being associated with the coming of swallows. Medically it was traditionally used to treat warts and take mistiness away from eyes.

Greater Periwinkle,  Vinca major

 Introduced from the Mediterranean by 1597 and first recorded in the wild in 1650. Given how frequently it is found as a garden escapee now it is not surprising that it only took 50 or so years to escape from cultivation.

The main ID point for me is the  leaf margins with tiny hairs. Lesser Periwinkle leaves do not have this fringe. The petals are distinctly twisted in the bud.

This post brings #365DaysofBotany to Day 127. I intend to post more at the weekend on #Wildflowerhour 

Of flowers and folklore

This blog is new and developing. Although its primary aim is to present #365DaysofBotany in a twice weekly form I am interested in the history of plants and am going to include some folklore in this one. I want the blog to be more than you could read in a botany ID paragraph but not become tedious. Let me know what you think, please.

Red Campion, Silene dioica

This plant is dioecious meaning that male and female flowers are on separate plants and I think was the first I discovered to be like this. Female flowers have 5 styles (well shown by photo at the top) and a capsule with 10 strongly down - curved teeth. Male flowers have 10 stamens. The 5 petals are deeply notched.

It is native and was associated with snakes and indeed ground up seeds are still used by herbalists as an antidote to snake bites. The plant contains saponin and the roots can be boiled to make a solution for clothes washing. Folklore names include: Cuckoo- flower and Adder's Flower. 

Hawthorn,  Crataegus monogyna

Another native, this plant symbolises the change from Spring to Summer for many and I look out for it after Blackthorn and Wild Cherry have faded. It has been used for hedging for many centuries with millions of plants especially grown in C18 -C19 to make the 200,000 miles of new hedges required by Parliamentary Enclosures. Flowers are in flat topped clusters and the anthers are reddish. There is one style which can just be seen here.

Wood Avens, Geum urbanum

This native is also known as Herb Bennet and has small yellow flowers with 5 well separated petals, the sepals clearly visible between them. Stem leaves are 3 lobed which can just about be seen here. The stems are erect and I often see these flowers beaming out above the other hedgerow plants. 

The roots smell sweet and spicy and in the past have been boiled to ease an upset stomach. The smell of the roots also was reputed to repel moths and keep clothes smelling fresh.

Ribwort Plantain, Plantago lanceolata

The flower stalk of this native is strongly ribbed and silky hairy. It needs to be strong to support the game children play flicking two flower heads against each other until the weaker stem loses its head. This traditional game, probably less played now, gave rise, no doubt, to local names with a martial theme: Fighting Cocks, Swords and Spears, Men of War and many others. 

There are many tiny flowers about 4mm across and each flower lies behind a tiny greenish bract. I don't think any other flower detail can be seen here. The leaves have 3-5 strongly marked parallel veins.

All of these were seen within a few hundred yards of my home in the Wye Valley and cover Days 121- 124 of #365DaysofBotany. I hope to post again midweek.

I used mostly Grigson's The Englishman's Flora for the historical detail, Harrap's Wild Flowers and Stace 4 for botanical detail and to  check the Latin names!

I hope you find it of interest.

Tree, shrub and flower

       



 Horse Chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum

I was pleased to find this mature specimen growing wild in the Wye Valley as it's very much a planted tree in UK. The species was introduced from Turkey in the late sixteenth century.  This one was close to a waterfall so may have sprung from a conker washed downstream many years ago.
Individual flowers have 4 or 5 fringed petals and are white with a pink flush at the base. The flowers are a rich source of nectar and pollen for insects particularly bees. These flowers were at least 20 feet above my head and a stiff breeze was blowing so sadly I could neither see or hear insects. The rustle of the leaves overlaying the rush of water was a good alternative!

 Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea 

This native is abundant in the lanes and woodland paths at the moment. It forms patches and tangles up through the grass. There are five petals which are split about halfway to the base. I was listening to someone talking about birds the other day and mentioning a  key ID feature for each. This and the petals being much longer than the sepals are the key things for me. 

Broom, Cytisus scoparius

Found growing in groups on open woodland paths in Wye Valley and visible through many twists and turns. It is a member of the pea family, Fabaceae. The distinctive flowers are orange yellow, stems are 5 angled with long, slender, green shoots. Lower leaves are stalked with 3 leaflets.

These three plants cover the #365DaysofBotany Days 118-120. 

I hope to publish the next few on Sunday during #Wildflowerhour

Shady Woodland Plants

Here I post 4 plants to complete Days 113-116 of #365DaysofBotany.

First Wood Melick, Melica uniflora which is common on the wooded lanes round here. It has loose, dangling purple brown heads which look a little like grains of rice.

Second, native Woodruff, Galium odoratum again on a shady hedgebank. It creeps and forms a patch. The stems are erect and unbranched and the flowers are in umbel-like clusters. The leaves which smell like vanilla when crushed grow in whorls. It's locally common and I look forward to it flowering throughout May and June.

Third, Ramsoms, Allium ursinum. This is becoming a white carpet on roadsides and paths at the moment. All parts are strongly scented of garlic. The flowers are in loose clusters, sepals and petals identical. Leaves are stalked and long ovals.

Fourth, native Yellow Archangel, Lamium galeobdolon common in damp and shady woodland here. Whorls of large, yellow flowers marked with reddish brown streaks. Upper lip hooded, enclosing the four stamens and lower lip has three lobes.

A few thank yous are in order. First to @Barbus59 for advice and encouragement! Then to Simon Harrap who wrote Harrap's Wild Flowers my first go -to book. I often think authors are not thanked and acknowledged sufficiently. Finally all the people who have left likes and encouraging remarks on Twitter.  I hope you enjoy this blog. There should be another for midweek.