Sepals and Petals: Tansy, Orange Balsam, Yellow Water-lily, Common Fleabane, Gypsywort and Yellow Loosestrife

On the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and near Aldermaston on the Kennet and Avon Canal, I found a mixture of aquatic plants and those which just find the canal bank a suitable habitat. The first three entries were found near Sharpness.

Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare

This member of the Asteraceae family, found on rough grassland often near water, maybe a native or of ancient introduction. Its flat-topped clusters of flowers are distinctive. The yellow disk-florets are tightly packed and button like. There is a small depression in the centre of each. The marginal ray-florets are inconspicuous, though can be seen here.

The leaves are fern-like, pinnate with toothed leaflets.

The local names reflect the appearance : Bachelor's Buttons in Somerset, Buttons in Yorkshire and Parsley Fern in Devon.

It has been used medicinally and as a flavouring since at least medieval times. Culpepper thought it both aided conception and prevented miscarriage. The scent and bitter taste were used as repellents: to keep mice away from corn, flies away from meat and even worms away from corpses. This last is how Linnaeus explained tanacetum, the 'deathless plant' from the Greek athanasia. Gerard preferred the explanation that the flowers 'do not speedily wither'. I think I'll go with Gerard!

It was sufficiently important to be taken to New England with the settlers.

Orange Balsam, Impatiens capensis

In contrast to Tansy which was taken to America this was introduced to British gardens from North America and first recorded in the wild in 1822. Americans call it Kicking Colt and Jewel Weed, and used it against warts and rashes. It spreads through a highly efficient seed dispersal mechanism: seeds are light and corky, floating on water like tiny coracles, Richard Mabey says, until they land on a muddy bank.

This plant was growing in a marina mooring and had obviously settled in nicely!

The blooms are orange, heavily blotched reddish and unique. The pouch-like lower sepal ends in a spur that is bent double. Leaves are 3-9 cm long and are toothed. It is a member of the Balsaminaceae family.

Yellow Water-lily, Nuphar lutea

This native water-lily from the Nymphaeaceae family is better able to cope with damage from water traffic than the White Water-lily, thus it is happy on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. It grows from a massive rootstock.

The flowers are 3-6 cm across and held a few cm above the water. The 5-6 sepals form the cup flower, the petals below are not visible here as I would have had to swim to see them. The castle shaped capsule which will contain the seeds can be seen. This flower is well above the water level as it has yet to mature. The central styles radiate from the centre of the disc. Wildflowerfinder website (link below) has great photos of these features.

The floating leaves are leathery, shiny green and oval.

Local names include Blobs or Waterblobs in Dorset and Brandy Bottle in number of counties including Berkshire probably alluding to the slightly alcoholic smell of the flower and the shape of the capsule.

The rhizomes were steeped in tar and applied against baldness.

Common Fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica

A native plant and of the Asteraceae family this specimen was growing on the Kennet and Avon Canal bank near Aldermaston. It is patch-forming with cottony-hairy, slightly greyish foliage and large, golden-yellow flowers in loose, flat-topped clusters. Leaves are wrinkled and strap-shaped.

It was believed the smoke from burning Common Fleabane drove away fleas and as it is a comparatively close relative of the species which supply the insecticide pyrethrum there may be good evidence for this. Pulex is Latin word for flea hence pulicaria. Linnaeus called it dysenterica having been told by a Russian general it cured dysentery in his troops.

Gypsywort, Lycopus europaeus

Dense whorls of tiny white flowers which are spotted purple on an upright angular stem make this native from the Lamiaceae family very noticeable on the canal bank. Two stamens project from the corolla. Leaf margins are cut into large jagged teeth on the upper leaves, becoming narrow pointed lobes at base of lower leaves.

The plant gives a good, fast black dye and the name is reputed to arise from the belief that gypsies used it to dye their skins. There is no evidence for this and the story which became widespread having begun in 1578 is probably apocryphal.

In the past Gypsywort, also known as Water Horehound, was used as a sedative.

Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris

A native, of the Primulaceae family and is no relation to Purple-loosestrife, Lythrum salicara written about in the last blog. They are sometimes found growing together.

The petals are joined together at the base but separate at the top, forming a cup shaped flower. There are 5 stamens with large yellow anthers and one green style. The sepals, the calyx-teeth, have narrow golden fringes and the style becomes more obvious as the anthers fade.

It is a tall plant and had formed here a sizeable patch at least 1.5 m across. It is softly hairy with leaves opposite or in whorls of 3-4 around the stem. They are oval-lanceolate with tiny yellow gland-dots along the edges just about visible in the above photo.