Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea. The species has evolved to be especially attractive to long-tongued bees such as the common carder bee. The brightly coloured flowers and dark spotted lip attracts the bee, while the lower lip of the flower allows the insect to land before climbing up the tube. In doing so, the bee will drop pollen from other foxgloves. As […]
Common vetch, Vicia sativa. A member of the pea family, Common vetch is able to make its own nitrates, a special nutrient essential for healthy plant growth.
Common knapweed, Centaurea nigra. Also known as ‘black knapweed’, Resembles a thistle. It is in bloom from June to September and is a huge favourite of all kinds of butterflies, including common blues, marbled whites and meadow browns.
Bristly oxtongue, Helminthotheca echioides. Flower is not unlike a dandelion but it’s the upstanding bristly nature of the plant, each bristle arising from a pimple, which helps identify it and makes it clear it really isn’t a dandelion! Leaves elliptical to oblong, wavy edged, pimply and bristly with winged stalks, upper leaves un-stalked and clasping the stem.
Borage, Borago officinalis. Flowers are normally blue but some pink examples can be found. The flowering season tends to be quite long from June to September. Can be confused with Green alkanet (also edible) but Borage flowers have pointed point tips at the end of each petal. WT
Birdsfoot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus. A member of the pea family. Its three yellow petal flowers appear in small clusters. They are followed by seed pods that look distinctly like bird’s feet or claws. It’s an important food plant for the caterpillars of the common blue, silver-studded blue and wood white butterflies and when there was more grassland on Parkland Walk it […]
Common or yellow toadflax, Linaria vulgaris. A common plant of waste ground, grassland, roadside verges and hedgerows. Its yellow-and-orange flowers appear in June and persist well into November; they look like the flowers of snapdragons (familiar garden plants), and are often densely packed. These flowers give the plant its other common name of ‘butter and eggs’. WT
Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. A list of alternative names reflect its uses in herbal medical treatments and early brewing techniques. The genus name is derived from the Greek character, Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds. Names include Field hops, Knight’s milefoil, Nosebleed, Old man’s pepper, Soldier’s Woundwort, and Sanguinary.
White deadnettle, Lamium album. Another ‘nettle’ that is not actually a nettle but a member of the mint family. Like the red deadnettle it bears no sting. Photo: Stephen Middleton WT
Rosebay willowherb, Chamerion angustifolium. This species is abundant in wet slightly acidic open fields but it has earned the nicknames ‘fireweed’ and ‘bombweed’ as a result of its tendancy to colonize quickly on burnt ground and bomb sites during World War II. The plant’s rise from a local rarity is closely linked to the expansion of the railway network making it […]
