
A message from Simon Henstock:
I spotted this growing in the hedgerow down the Country Park this evening. Is it Shepherd’s Purse?
Reply from FoSCP
It’s lovely. I think it’s cuckoo flower, sometimes called lady’s smock (Cardamine pratensis) but it’s hard to tell: the evening light has made the flower look blue in this picture and the leaves are hidden in the grass. If you see it again, could you take a picture of its leaves please?
The flowers were a very pale pink and shone out at me as I walked past. If It remember rightly the leaves were small and very slender with not many of them. It’s a plant I would never find in the long grass if it wasn’t in flower.

Is this it, Simon? Cuckoo flower; the leaves are quite fern-like and will be at the bottom of the flowering stem.
That is what it is! I only saw two plants and they were growing right next to each other
There is also this (below) with similar white flowers but a very different leaf structure which I think is Greater Stitchwort. It is quite abundant in the park. And I also saw this with blue flower and red leaves which I need to identify as well.
You’re right, the first picture is greater stitchwort (Rabelera holostea); the flowers have five petals instead of four like the cuckooflower. The last one is ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea). Its leaves are red probably because it’s growing in full sunlight; it prefers shade.
Oh, I was struggling to work that last one out. Thank you for your help correctly identifying the plants
Any time, Simon; glad to help.
Growing up in Yorkshire, we used to call Ladies Smocks “Milkmaids”
Yes, that’s what Ian calls them as well.
Well done Simon, there are about a dozen Milkmaids on the bank of the pond. Keep going there a lots of plants and flowers we need to photograph and identify within the park.