Tag: Chamerion angustifolium
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Rosebay willow herb
Until the industrial revolution Chamerion angustifolium was a comparatively rare plant of woodland clearings and was often planted in gardens. Since then it has become the most successful coloniser of open land, embankments, waste grounds. I can remember the fluffy seeds being carried along in the draft of a thundering steam train. Each plant produces…
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Fireweed
The pinks of the Rosebay Willowherb are a common sight in summer but often overlooked. It’s a coloniser plant traditionally the first to grow after a fire, hence the folk name Fireweed. But it has not always so. The Georgians considered it quite a rarity and regarded it as a garden plant. Even as late…