Buttercups and daisies are a common enough sight but these and other meadow plants and their attendant insects are worth celebrating and preserving.
When I first saw a post on Twitter about the Big Meadow Search 2021 (organised by Laura Moss and Carmarthenshire Meadows Group to get people to search meadows nationally for plant species) I thought I'd have a go.
I wanted to do a survey of the upper part of my garden which is a meadow area and find out more about grasses. Of course, it soon became more than that. I've also spent some time with Green-winged Orchids and Common Twayblades in Clarke's Pool Nature Reserve in Gloucestershire in the first week (30th May- 6th June) and I have plans for the second week 3rd-10th July.....
In small proportions we just beauties see
And in short measures life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson
A dominant plant in my meadow area is the Ox-eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare. Richard Jefferies in his essay The Inevitable End Of Every Footpath said with buttercups they "form with the grass the tricolour of the pasture white, green and gold." In this cold June, they have been beloved by insects, ranging from a calm Eristalini hoverfly, from the Helophilus species, to a murderous encounter!
Regular readers of this blog will expect some plant history so here is a selection of what Grigson tells us in The Englishman's Flora. For those of you, like me, who also know this plant as Moon Daisy or Dog Daisy these are more traditional English names. Ox-eye came to be used in the sixteenth century. Another set of English names is based on the weather and the midsummer: Thunder or Dunder Daisy and Midsummer Daisy. These links are shared across Europe. In the Tyrol, and parts of Germany, these daisies were hung upon houses to keep away lightning and in Austria it is called Sunnawendl, Sunnwendbleaml, solstice, solstice flower.
Herbalists used it to combat asthma, wounds and ulcers.
I found 25 species of flower in my garden meadow including all the usual suspects: Bulbous, Creeping and Meadow Buttercup, Cleavers, Common Birdsfoot Trefoil, Catsear to name a few. Common Spotted Orchids and Heath Bedstraw are waiting in the wings and hopefully will be in bloom for Week 2. One of my favourites is Ragged Robin, Silene flos-cuculi, which is found in a shady damp corner.
Historically Ragged Robin has not been used medicinally or eaten but Gerard says they served for "garlands and crowns, and to decke up gardens." It is known as Shaggy Jacks in Devon and Somerset, and Thunder-flower in Yorkshire.
To grasses.... I was able to identify: Yorkshire-fog, Rough Meadow Grass, Creeping Bent, Cock's-foot and Crested Dog's Tail. Here is the front and back view of Cock's-foot, Dactylis glomerata. (More are in flower now- and I can identify more! Thanks to the resources listed below. )
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June .... Everything loves June.
