Wallflower

I'm not sure if these are native to the UK or whether they are garden escapees but they grow on coastal cliff around here right down to the tide line. These ones are on the old walls of Seafield Castle. You can just make some out on the sky line!



A bit lower down :D They have the scent of our garden ones but not as strong (although it was a cold grey windy day.

 

Lovely colour, but funny looking leaves for a wallflower :D oh forgot to mention very nice pictures

 

Frogescue - there is a wild wallflower that is native to the UK but I don't think thats it - too big.



For size, take a look at the nearbye thrift. It rarely grows above 1 foot, but flowers off and on for about nine months of the year

 

Good photos. Wallflowers are not native, but they have been in Britain since 1066! They were introduced by the Normans from Southern Europe and are now naturalised on old walls, castles and rock cuttings

 

That's interesting Fran, I wonder if these are hybrids ??? Or maybe we just grow 'em big 'n tough up here :D

[ 09. May 2006, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: frogesque ]

 

It looks a lot like the so-called Siberian Wallflower (Erysimum x allionii), but they are more orange in colour. It never came from Siberia, but was garden raised in 1847. Perhaps this is a yellow form?

 

Excuse me - but I my little wild wallflower is not an erysimum (?spelling) but is Cheiranthus cheiri - as I recall. Now when did that appear/come in Hornbeam :D

 

I am always happier with popular plant names for two reasons. I can never remember, spell or pronounce the Latin ones! The second reason is that the botanical boffins keep changing and re-arranging the scientific names.

The wild wallflower is Cheiranthus cheiri which is synonymous with Erysimum cheiri. It depends on which book you read and when it was published. Known as Cheiranthus cheiri until the 1980s, when the entire Cheiranthus genus joined the Erysimum genus and so became Erysimum cheiri.

Although now naturalised and growing wild in Britain, it is not a native. (A native is a plant that arrived in Britain without man's aid).

Our wallflower is an introduction and came from southern Europe. It was brought over to Britain from Caen as seed trapped in the dust of stone which the Normans imported to build their castles to subdue all of us Saxons after 1066. Ditto the wild carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus).

Source is a fascinating book which I strongly recommend:
The Origin of Plants by Maggie Campbell-Culver


Wallflowers on rock ledges below Barnard Castle

 

Good gracious - one lives and learns. :D