White Campion and Soapwort

These two members of the Caryophyllaceae family White Campion, Silene latifolia and Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis are both of ancient introduction though it is possible Soapwort is native in the south-west of England. 

When I photographed the White Campion I only took quick snaps as I did not intend to blog about it and then I got interested......

White Campion, Silene latifolia

This was introduced to Britain by Neolithic farmers and remains have been found on these and Bronze Age sites. It has a number of attractive names such as Summer Saucers in Somerset and Granny's Nightcap in Buckinghamshire. It has, however, a very dark side: pick it and your mother dies hence the name Mother-die in Cumbria. (Pick Red Campion, a native plant, not introduced, and your father will die.)

Its root can be used as a soap substitute for washing clothes and hair. It was also one of the ingredients in sixteenth century potpourri.

 

I saw this plant on the towpath of the Kennet and Avon Canal near Aldermaston.

It is dioecious with male and female flowers on separate plants. I think this is probably a female flower with 5 styles beginning to develop at the centre. 

I think below is probably the male flower with 10 stamens, a few of which are visible here. Male plants also have more flowers which also makes it likely in this small colony this is the male.

The male calyx is 10 veined, the female 20 but it's not possible to use these photos to identify those. The plant is softly hairy, leaves lanceolate and opposite. 

Petals are deeply cleft and there is a sweet scent in the evening attracting pollinating moths.

In the course of this post I have discovered a superb website English Wild Flowers, A Seasonal Guide by Ken Jones which has excellent photos of this and other plants. Link at the bottom. On this site you can find the definitive ID of the male/ female plants through photographs. 

Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis

I know of two sites near where I live in the Wye Valley for this. One is near gardens in Tintern but this colony is much more in the wild on the bank of the Wye between Bigsweir and Llandogo and a mile or so from houses. The patch is at least twice as big this year as last, stretching for more than 3 metres. I suspect it may have originally arrived on floodwater.

There are dense clusters of pale pink flowers.There are 2 styles, 10 stamens and the calyx tube is long and split into 5 triangular teeth at the tip. It is often reddish.

Leaves are opposite, long-oval, near-stalkless and slightly bluish-green. There are 3-5 bold parallel veins. Most of these features can be seen here in these three photos- which were taken with the blog in mind and are I hope more useful!

This plant's English name, Soapwort, was given by the naturalist William Turner, who took it from Saponaria and Herba Fullonum the 'fullers' herb'. Possibly it was used in the manufacture of cloth in medieval times and certainly it was one of the ancient washing plants before soap was invented or generally used. A solution made from it was used as a disinfectant wash in thirteenth century Italy. Leaves were crushed, boiled in water and the liquid after straining gave an appreciable if not long lasting lather. Interestingly, Gerard regards it only as a garden ornamental but Culpepper describes the leaves laid on cuts and bruises. Bruisewort is a Somerset name for it.

Settlers took it with them to New England in the seventeenth century where the solution of water made  soapy with leaves and roots was used against the unpleasant rash caused by Poison Ivy. It became naturalised in USA. Americans still give it the West Country name of Bouncing Bett.

I hope you have found this interesting and were not too frustrated by the lack of useful photos for White Campion. If you look at the recommended website for ID photos you won't be disappointed.

 Exploring two members of the Caryophyllaceae family was key for me here. 

Acknowledgements: 

Stace 4

Harrap's Wild Flowers

Grigson The Englishman's Flora 

http://www.seasonalwildflowers.com/

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk

Wood Sage and Giant Bellflower

These are to be found in hedgerows near Monmouth. Wood Sage is a member of the Lamiaceae family and Giant Bellflower the Campanulaceae. Both are natives.

Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia

Linnaeus gave this plant the generic name Teucrium either after an ancient king of Troy, Teucer, or a medieval medical botanist, Dr Teucer. The specific name scorodonia is derived from the Greek word for garlic of which however it does not smell! Some of the folknames are more transparent like Gipsy's Sage in Dorset and Rock Mint in Somerset. The hedge-bottom it grows on here is on a steep hillside, so dry and stony.

Herbalists collected the flowers in July and used them to combat blood diseases, rheumatism and fever.

The leafless spikes of small, pale greenish-cream flowers face to one side and are the most noticeable ID feature. There is no upper lip to the corolla. The lower lip is five lobed. The lowest lobe of the flower is a shallow spoon shape and has two tiny nicks near the bottom; above that are two curved short lobes like arms and a further pair just above those. The stamens are dark purple-brown and the anthers orange- brown. The style is pale green and forked. I think all these can be seen here.

The flowers are oppositely-paired on the square stem but curve around to face in the same direction. In the UK they face south, the direction the midday sun is located.

Leaves are opposite and have a deep network of veins perhaps suggesting sage leaves.

Giant Bellflower, Campanula latifolia

The hedgerow here is shady but on less steep ground. The patch is very noticeable being about a metre tall. The short stalked purplish-blue flowers open from the top of the leafy spikes and initially, at least, point upwards. They are solitary and at intervals.

The flowers are star-shaped; the petals cut to half way and hairy with 3-5 veins.

The key ID features come in the leaves: the upper leaves are stalkless  but the lower leaves have a winged stalk.

Gerard says the leaves of Giant Throatwort (as he knew this plant) "hath very large leaves of an overworn green colour, hollowed in the middle like the Muscovites' spoon, and (are) very rough, slightly indented about the edges". That made me smile more than the "finely toothed" and "hairy" of the modern field guide!

Gerard also says this plant was a remedy for disorders of the throat and mouth.

Grigson adds Wild Spinach as a name used in Yorkshire. The shoots can be peeled, cooked and eaten like spinach.

I know of two sites for Giant Bellflower: one at Pentwyn Farm NR near Monmouth and the other this hedgerow. I think I got better photographs in the hedgerow as the weather was duller and calmer.

Acknowledgements: Harrap's Wild Flowers, Stace 4, Grigson The Englishman's Flora,  http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/   http://botanical.com/ websites and a new one for me  https://exclassics.com/  which contains Volumes 1-4 of Gerard's Herbal. I think I will be using it a lot!

White Dead-nettle, Red Dead-nettle and Bifid Hemp-nettle

These are in the Lamiaceae family. The generic name is from the Greek 'lamia' meaning devouring monster. This refers to the helmet shape (galeate) of the flower which has the appearance of open jaws. Only Bifid Hemp-nettle is native, the other two are of ancient introduction. Red dead-nettle was probably introduced with early agriculture. Evidence of it has been found in Bronze Age settlements.

White Dead-nettle, Lamium album

This is, of course, a common sight in most of lowland Britain, in bloom most of the year from March to December, and has had various uses in herbal medicine. The dense well-spaced whorls of flowers are distinctive. Grigson says, rightly I think, its charms are overlooked and that for a start it is not pure white but white suffused with green. The lower lip is marked with gold something I have always noted.

What I had not discovered was the folk name in Somerset, Adam-and-Eve-in-the-Bower, which refers to the four black and gold stamens which lie side by side under the upper, hooded lip like human figures. (More detail on http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/ )The plant is hairy but the upper lip is softly felted and fringed. 

One of our under-rated plants in hedgerow, verge and waste ground. Also with a claim to one of the best folk names ever?

Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum

This plant like White Dead-nettle has the folk names Bee-nettle and Deaf-nettle. Latin names make identification clear. Bee-nettle in particular underlines the importance of these plants to pollinators. I recently walked along a field where the margins had been sprayed with weedkiller. There was an absence  of bees until I got to a corner that had been missed by the sprayer where both White and Red Dead-nettle thrived. Guess what - lots of bees.

It is a more delicate plant than White Dead-nettle, softly downy with whorls of reddish-purple flowers. All leaves are stalked. 

The upper lip of the corolla encloses the four stamens. 

The plant has accrued a considerable reputation as a herbal remedy for bleeding of any kind. Bruised leaves were also applied to wounds.

Bifid Hemp-nettle, Galeopsis bifida

Thanks to #Wildflowerhour team for confirming my ID of this plant which I don't think I have ever seen before. It grows on waste ground near arable fields from where it may have come. The seeds are of low fertility so it does not spread widely.

The flower colour is variable but the central lobe of the lower lip is always distinctly notched (hence the name bifid) and folded down along the margins. The dark markings extend almost to the edge. 

Flowers, stems and leaves are hairy. The stems, often reddish, are square and hairy on all sides.

The first two of these Lamiaceae family are really common but I wonder how many of us have stooped to admire, particularly in the case of White Dead-nettle, the stamens.

Acknowledgements : Stace 4, Harrap's Wild Flowers, Grigson The Englishman's Flora Websites http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/, https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk, http://botanical.com/

Hedge Bedstraw, Common Marsh-bedstraw, Heath Bedstraw and Lady's Bedstraw

These four native Bedstraws are in the family Rubiaceae and grow in very different habitats locally: in order - a sunny village hedgerow, a very wet Nature Reserve, a dry heath and my wild meadow. 

Photography of such small flowers is a challenge!

Hedge Bedstraw, Galium album

This plant both sprawls and grows erect in a local hedge near Monmouth.

Large sprays of tiny (3-4 mm) white flowers thick along long branching stems make this colony very noticeable. It has the longest stems of these Bedstraws, up to 150 cm. The petals taper to a fine point.  

The stems are smooth and square which can be seen here. The leaves also taper to a fine point. They show up clearly here against a laurel hedge. 

Common Marsh-bedstraw, Galium palustre

Very common around the lake at Woorgreens Nature Reserve in the Royal Forest of Dean, this scrambles around the lake shore path. It has shorter stems than Hedge Bedstraw: up to 100 cm.

 

 

The leaves are rounded without a bristle at the tip. 

Heath Bedstraw, Galium saxatile

Abundant on the heathland at Beacon Hill, near Monmouth. 

Forming mats, often with non-flowering shoots, the short leaves are in whorls of 5-8 with a fine point at the tip which can be seen here and forward pointing prickles on the edges which can't. I did see them with a 10x lens. It is quite low growing on Beacon Hill. Stems are four angled and between 10-30 cm long. It is the most compact of the Bedstraws in this post.

Lady's Bedstraw, Galium verum

Lady's Bedstraw comes with much folklore. Culpepper recommends its use to prevent or stop bleeding. It has a long history of being used in cheesemaking. The Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides in the C1st CE called it "galion" the milk plant and said it was a substitute for rennet. Lady's Bedstraw was named Cheese Rennet by Marion Golding, @nanny_MG on #Wildflowerhour recently. She is following in a long tradition. It was used across Europe for this purpose and Gerard, who was brought up in Cheshire, says it was used in Nantwich where the best cheese is made! Apart from its curdling action it also added colour. 

 

Other names include Maiden's Hair in Yorkshire because of its colour and possible use as a dye or rinse and Fleaweed in Suffolk as it was reputed to keep fleas out of the mattresses in which it was used.

According to a medieval legend of Northern Europe Christ was born on a bedstraw of bracken and Galium verum and as one of the Cradle Herbs it may have been used in the manger. Plants with the word Lady in their names often have a link to the Virgin Mary. Certainly, it was widely used in bedding as its smell of honey when fresh, becoming the scent of hay when dry, made it an attractive addition to other stems. 

It was also believed to ease childbirth: the relaxing perfume possibly being key here. 

This has arrived in the wild area of my garden in the last few years and is now fairly well established. There are frothy masses of tiny bright yellow four petalled flowers. Leaves in whorls of 6-12 are strap-shaped with down-rolled margins and a tiny point at the tip.The stems are smooth and subtly four angled.

This brings to a close an account of the Bedstraws I have seen recently in sun, rain and cloud! 

Acknowledgements

 I am indebted to Stace 4, Harrap's Wild Flowers, Grigson The Englishman's Flora and website http://botanical.com/ A Modern Herbal by Mrs M Grieve

Rough Hawkbit and Mouse-ear-hawkweed

These two natives are in the family Asteraceae.  Classification of  yellow-flowered composites is very complicated and the subject of huge debate by botanists. I do not feel qualified to enter that debate but hope I have discovered some interesting information and enough to identify them in the field.

Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus

The name Leontodon comes from two Greek words meaning lion's tooth. Here then is the first ID feature seen in the toothed and erect leaves. Secondly, some hairs on the stem and leaves are forked into a Y shape at the extreme tip and hopefully that can be seen here.

The plant is conspicuously hairy. The blooms are held singly on unbranched, leafless stems and the junction of flower head and stem is abrupt. Here in the Gwent Wildlife NR at Pentwyn Farm the stems are about 30 cm long.

 

Mouse-ear-hawkweed, Pilosella officinarum

This is growing on top of a stone wall which mimics one of its habitats - rocky places. ID features include solitary pale lemon-yellow flowers which are striped red below on unbranched, leafless stems

and rosettes of dark green leaves which have scattered long hairs above and contrastingly white-felted undersides. 

The plant, Mouse-ear-hawkweed, has a long history of herbal medicine persisting at least into the twentieth century.

Culpepper recommended Mouse-ear-hawkweed  infused in white wine to ease jaundice and intestinal problems of many kinds. It has anti-bacterial properties and has been used to treat respiratory infections. The herb is collected in May and June when in flower, and dried.

The vernacular English name Hawkweed (and indeed Hawkbit) come via the Greek word hieras, a hawk, from the ancient belief that hawks ate plants from this genus to sharpen their sight. My understanding of the naming of these plants is, of necessity, very simple: Pliny the Elder, in the first century CE, influenced by this belief, named the genus Hieracium in his Naturalis Historia and Linnaeus continued the use of the name. 

Now the Hawkweeds, Hieracium agg are a large group of of microspecies which can only be separated by experts and as said above keen debate continues as modern botanists discover more about these plants. Stace 4 for example says that evidence for generic separation of Pilosella from Hieracium is equivocal. Maybe you will have opinions to be revealed in the comments. I shall be very glad to read them. I undertook this botanical challenge to learn and I am!

Acknowledgements include Stace 4, Harrap's Wild Flowers and websites http://botanical.com/  A Modern herbal by Mrs M Grieve and 

http://www.labunix.uqam.ca/~fg/MyFlora/Asteraceae/Hieracium/hieracium.e.shtml

Musk-mallow and Common Mallow

These are members of the Mallow family: Malvaceae. Musk Mallow is native and Common Mallow of ancient introduction.

Musk-mallow, Malva moschata

This plant is locally common on well drained verges, pastures and field margins. It is very distinctive with delicate rose-pink, or sometimes white, flowers. The flower gives the plant its name as it smells of musk, most noticeable when cut and brought indoors.

The upper leaves are cut into fine lobes and stems are sparsely hairy with swollen purple bases to the hairs.

Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris

This plant is found on well-drained waste ground and rough grassy places. It thrives here in the rain shadow of a 5 metre wall which edges a lane.

In contrast to the Musk Mallow this plant has a long medicinal and herbal history. The Romans ate the leaves, flowers and seeds both for food and a preventative medicine. Pliny said a daily dose would make you immune to all diseases. Pollen has been found in excavations of the Roman fort at Bearsden, just north of Glasgow, and it's possible it was deliberately cultivated there. Over the centuries infusions were drunk for digestive issues and respiratory infections, a syrup was made for sore throats and poultices applied to skin conditions.

It is tall with striking purplish-pink five petalled flowers marked with darker veins. The petals are notched.

Stems are hairy and stem leaves are cut into 5- 7 rounded lobes. There are 5 sepals. I believe you can see here the developing fruits: doughnut-shaped rings of nutlets.  Children still nibble these small round seeds which are widely known as cheeses because of their shape. They are bland, slightly nutty in taste. This has obviously given rise to a number of cheese related local names, a few of which I give here: Fairy Cheeses in Somerset and Yorkshire, Cheese Flower in Somerset, Sussex and Wiltshire. Gerard speaks of them as a "knap or round button, like unto a flat cake". Further examples of the plant again being known by the fruit not the flower are the names Billy Buttons in Somerset and Pancake Plant in Lincolnshire.

Acknowledgements: Harrap's Wild Flowers, Stace 4, Grigson The Englishman's Flora and Richard Mabey Flora Britannica

Enchanter's-nightshade and Rosebay Willowherb

To the casual observer these two native plants would not seem to be similar but they are, in fact, members of the same family: Onagraceae, Willowherbs. 

Enchanter's-nightshade, Circaea lutetiana

It grows in damp shady places in deciduous woodland and is perhaps easily overlooked. It is patch-forming with leafless spikes of small, delicate flowers. The ID features come largely in twos: leaves in opposite pairs, 2 petals, 2 sepals, 2 stamens and 2 seeds in bristly cases. The stigma is deeply lobed.

These scientific details perhaps don't do it justice. I quote Richard Mabey:

The tiny blossoms are mounted like butterflies on pins up the stems. They are formed

from two palest pink heart-shaped petals, mounted around two deeper stamens.

The English name Inchaunter's Nightshade occurs for the first time in Gerard. The Latin probably has links to Circe, the witch who transformed the crew of Ulysses into pigs. The plant has no links to witchcraft or medicine in this country.

Rosebay Willowherb,  Chamaenerion angustifolium

This common plant has a surprising history. Gerard first named it as a British species and until the mid eighteenth century it was a scarce northern plant on scree and rock ledges. By the mid nineteenth century it was spreading but still considered rare in Hertfordshire. The population exploded in World War One on land where wood had been felled to supply timber for the war effort. In World War Two there was a second expansion particularly on bomb sites in London. One popular name was generated: Bombweed. There is a theory that it spread more generally along, and then away from, railway tracks. Each plant produces about 80,000 seeds which can float freely in the slipstream of trains and on the breeze.

It is distinctive with tall spires of rose-purple flowers. Leaves are alternate, stalkless, strap-shaped and pointed. The large flowers have four petals, unequal in size, and four long, narrow, reddish sepals. The style is bent downwards and the stigma four lobed.

Acknowledgements: Harrap's Wild Flowers, Stace 4, Richard Mabey Flora Britannica and Grigson The Englishman's Flora.

Fairy Flax, Heath Speedwell and Climbing Corydalis

It was good to see these three native species growing on Beacon Hill near Monmouth: Fairy Flax and Heath Speedwell on open heathland and Climbing Corydalis in deep woodland shade. I haven't seen Fairy Flax locally before and two of the Corydalis sites I previously knew about have ceased to exist. One was destroyed by a fallen tree and the other the victim of redevelopment.  

Fairy Flax, Linum catharticum

The now open heathland here, once planted with trees, was restored by the Forestry Commission and is now managed by Gwent Wildlife Trust to bring back the specialist plants that are adapted to the nutrient- poor, acidic soils of this habitat. Success!

The flowers are tiny with almost all features coming in fives: yellow stamens, yellow anthers, petals, pointed sepals. The white blooms have four or five translucent veins. It is a slender plant and here is forming a mat of stems weaving through the grass.

It was mentioned in the 1633 edition of Gerard's Herbal and recommended as a mild purgative. The whole plant was bruised, infused in white wine and left overnight to be consumed in the morning.

Heath Speedwell, Veronica officinalis

This grows well on the path leading up to the Fairy Flax. The stems are prostrate with erect spikes of pale lilac flowers which are themselves on short stalks. Flower spikes grow from the leaf axils. The leaves are oval and very shallowly toothed.

 

Climbing Corydalis, Ceratocapnos claviculata

Several specimens of this are growing on the edge of a path through fairly dense woodland. It is very delicate, scrambling and uses tendrils to climb. These photos are rather dark but indicate the habitat of this plant.

The foliage is a tangled mass with small clusters of creamy flowers. It is an annual flowering from May to December so these plants are young.

 

Acknowledgements: Harrap's Wild Flowers, Mabey Flora Britannica, Stace 4 and Wild flower finder website. https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk