Spear thistle
Another species named in the Injurious Weeds Act of 1959: the tall and beautiful spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Here is a gallery of pictures of spear thistles taken in the park by DKG.
Click here for a gallery of pctures
Carnivorous plants
The lower leaves of a teasel grow opposite each other in pairs and each pair joins together around the stem, forming a cup. The cups fill with rainwater and insects fall into the little pools where they drown.
Continue readingTeasel
This is wild teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), sometimes called the common teasel, photographed in Lambrok Meadow next to Lambrok Stream.
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Selfheal
Here is another member of the Lamiaceae family: Prunella vulgaris, commonly known as selfheal or all-heal. Like the other Lamiaceae that we have looked at, red dead nettle and ground ivy, it has the characteristic two lipped zygomorphic flower and a square stem.
Continue readingAsh dieback
Ash dieback is a disease that is especially deadly to Britain’s native ash trees, Fraxinus excelsior.
Continue reading “Ash dieback”Creeping thistle
The 1959 Injurious Weeds Act does not just apply to ragwort. It names four more species as well: broad leaved dock, creeping thistle, curled dock, and the spear thistle . The park has all of them.
Continue reading “Creeping thistle”Ragwort again
This year the park produced beautiful hay: a variety of grasses, dry, sweet smelling, full of wildflower and not a single shred of ragwort anywhere.
Continue reading “Ragwort again”
Blatant vandalism
Caught in the act, a grey squirrel stripping bark from a willow tree near the footbridge into Village Green; spotted, photographed and chased away by Ian Bushell
Continue readingGrowing trees
The climate scientists are finally persuaded that Southwick Country Park’s solution to global warming is the right way to go. They should have asked us sooner.
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Water plantain ( Alisma plantago-aquatica) thriving in the Lambrok Tributary
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Tufted vetch
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
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Roses in the rain.
photos by Suzanne Humphries
Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) taken at dawn this morning by DKG.
Gallery of colours
A gallery of colour to lift the sombre, over-grown greens of all the latest pictures on the home page.
Hogweed
This has been a year of astonishing growth: more grass than we have ever seen, nettles at head height, trees and shrubs sagging under the weight of blossom. Our common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) is standing seven feet tall in places with flower-heads the size of dinner plates.
Continue reading “Hogweed”A walk in the park
by Ian Bushell
Continue reading “A walk in the park”
