WILDFLOWERS YOU HAVE SEEN WHILE OUT WALKING

I've spotted this thread rather late in the day, but hopefully not too late to mention a couple of really fascinating wildflower 'experiences' I've had locally this year. One was an organised wildflower-spotting walk round a Victorian cemetery in late May with Roy Vickery, an expert and most entertaining local botanist. I'm afraid I didn't take any photos on that one - the cemetery is disused now and maintained to encourage wildflowers, perhaps the most interesting and beautiful one we saw was the romantically named Star of Persia (allium christophii), a garden introduction originally, but now he told us regarded as naturalised both here and on nearby commons.

Then in early June I helped the biodiversity team from our local council with a wildflower survey being done as a follow-up to No-Mow May, in a small area of the park down the road which has been left to naturalise since 2019. There used to be sheds on the site and the soil is still very thin and poor, which has encouraged the wildflowers to come all by themselves (i.e. no sowing by humans). It was very gratifying to discover on this first survey that twenty-nine different species of flowers and grasses had arrived - and that was actually an underestimate, as I have spotted a few more on my morning walks since then. No rarities but great to see, and much appreciated by local insects; this time I did take a few photos:

The survey site:


Green alkanet, which Roy Vickery had identified on the earlier walk as a wildflower doing especially well in South London:

Common knapweed and perennial rye grass:

 

You often hear the term "wasteland" or "brown field site", but to nature they don't exist, and are often the more wildlife and native plantlife's friendliest places.

Good to know some places are just being left to their own devises and monitored as to what is happening.

 

Last of the year's Orchids.
Autumn Lady's Tresses, tiny and inconspicuous, barely 9" high and easily trodden on. Spiranthes spiralis is the apt Latin name.

 

Today I saw a beautiful wildflower while driving in Dalkeith. It was a gorgeous pink Hollyhock, a good 4 ft tall, growing between the edge of the tarmac pavement and a wall. What was really exciting is it had been left to flourish and no mindless yob had snapped it off.

 

Wild flowers but weeds in my garden, however I like them so I leave them alone

Anagallis arvensis (Scarlet Pimpernell)



Persicaria maculosa (Redleg)

 

Marsh Gentian, scarce and only found in a few counties and declining.

 

Another view of the little area of the park down the road that we surveyed for wildflowers back in early June. This one was taken in mid-August, it's great to see it still looking all green and lovely thanks to all the rain we've had. The flowers are much more noticeable too - predominantly yarrow, but there is a striking new arrival in the foreground too, the yellow spikes of a verbascum:



Here's a closer view of that. It is I think verbascum nigrum, dark mullein:

 

I have V. nigrum growing in my garden. Usually it gets decimated by mullein moth. Also a hypericum, not sure which. That seeds around so I have to pull some up or it would take over.
One good thing about lockdown was that the park up from us was left unmown. We had a lovely succession of flowers, big patches of cuckoo flower, Cardamine pratensis, followed by patches of flowering grasses of different kinds and hues. I was sad to see it all being mown again. I actually grew some cuckoo flowers this year from leaf cuttings. The slugs loved them but 4 survived and I planted them in the garden today. It is a food of the orange tip butterfly so I'm hoping to attract some.

 

I can id 100s of plants we grow in our gardens but I'm terrible at most of the wildflowers around. I suppose I've always viewed them as weeds mostly & therefore never learnt their names so I'm finding it difficult to put names to wildflowers growing here.

I've been taking pictures of them this last year or two but find it frustrating not knowing what to put in the file name.

I'm going to post a few (!) pictures & I hope someone can help.
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This last one grows by the millions at this time of the year here in any unmown grass. It's really quite pretty - en masse!
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@Balc some pretty 'weeds' there

1. I think is Linum grandiflorum - Red Flax
But I wouldn't call it a wild flower. I buy the seeds for my garden ever year, but missed this year for some unknown reason.

2 and 3 Echium vulgare - Vipers Bugloss

4. May be one of the Hawkbits or close relation. Someone else will know. They grow in profusion here too, in grassy places, and I agree very pretty.

Lots of people have apps now but I prefer books ( apps and ipads are too fiddly) - and the best book I've got on wild flowers is 'Colins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers' which is now out of print, and we took it everywhere with us when we went out ... but after it got wet from water leaking into the boot recently, I managed to get a replacement on Ebay.

I see lots of wild flowers about the place. Maybe I should post photos of them on here.

 

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites pyrenaicus. Introduced from the Mediterranean in the 1800's
Medicinal properties and smells vaguely of vanilla. Spreads rapidly and can be invasive.

 

I didn't take any pictures but I did see a couple of Dandelion flowers this morning.

 

@Michael Hewett thanks for IDing the flowers for me! The names all sound familiar just that they are plants I've never grown (which is how I generally get to remember their names!). The red one is very pretty & was growing amongst the wild flowers the local council gardeners sowed in the park alongside the river. I was able to id many of them but not this one.

The Vipers Bugloss is a name I know but I didn't connect it to this flower!

I think you are right about the yellow flower as I remember looking it up & deciding that was was it was!

I had an app once upon a time on my phone but it couldn't ID flowers I knew! So I uninstalled it & have never bothered to look for another one to take its place.
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