Tag: flora
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Hedge Bedstraw
I thought at first someone had placed this posy of flowers in the top of the one metre high Tuley tube, but after much deliberation, the family conclusion is that it’s Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo), a herbaceous annual of the same family of plants that gives us the sticky weed or cleavers, those long straggling…
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Common spotted orchid
Out litter picking after a hot weekend and came across this orchid. The name suggests it may be common but finding it growing in abundance in an abandoned quarry well used as a playground by BMX bikers is heartening. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Horse Tails
Horse Tails has been described as a living fossil. It is the only surviving member of the classĀ of plants known asĀ Equisetopsida which dominatedĀ the forests 360 million years ago during theĀ Carboniferous period. At a time when the dinosaurs still had to evolve Equisetopsida for 100 million years grew up to a height of 30m duringĀ which ourĀ coal…
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Elder Flowers
How wonderful to be with a DofE group today who were keen to understand and try out out edible wild plants. The small delicate flowers of the Elder were boiled up with sugar and a lemon flavoured drink powder (they didnāt have an orange or lemon). The elder flower water tasted good and hopefully will…
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May Blossom
In Nottingham in the early 60s I remember me mam saying “naerĀ cast a clout till May isĀ out” to me when I tried to go out in the Spring without my duffle coat or string vest. I thought, and I think me mam thought too, that “may” referred to the month of May but it really…
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Early Purple Orchids
The information board provided by the National Park says that Early Purple Orchids can be seen on theĀ limestone meadows of Sulber Nick in the Ingleborough nature reserve. So I guess these must beĀ Early Purple Orchids seen against a backdrop of Pen-y-Ghent, one of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks. They brightened up a trog up the motorway…