Winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris) is another of the wildflowers first identified and recorded in the reserve by Country Recorder Richard Aisbitt when he visited last summer. It isn’t a rare species or even particularly unusual; it’s just one of those plants that are so commonplace that nobody bothers to look at it or ask what it is.
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These are the seeds of hemlock water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata), probably the UK’s most poisonous plant.
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Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, a late-flowering perennial, photographed by Ian Bushell, in the little triangular field between Simpson’s Field and Fiveways.
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This is wild teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), sometimes called the common teasel, photographed in Lambrok Meadow next to Lambrok Stream.
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This is common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica); it is a plant that grows all over the place but nobody ever seems to know its name. As the reserve’s wildflowers go to seed at the end of the summer, the fleabane is a welcome splash of colour beside the paths.
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When the County Recorder for Flowering Plants, Richard Aisbitt, visited the reserve in May, he found two different species of ragwort: common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) and hoary ragwort (Jacobaea erucifolia).
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Water plantain ( Alisma plantago-aquatica) thrives in the Lambrok’s tributary stream, even in conditions as dry as these.
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We would love to see drifts of summery oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) in the reserve’s fields but there is a problem.
Read on to find out what the problem is
The reserve’s common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) can grow two metres tall in places, with flower-heads the size of dinner plates. Every year, somebody asks if it is, in fact, giant hogweed and the answer is: no.
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There is always competition to be the first to send in pictures of our common spotted orchids. This year the prize goes to Countryside Officer Ali Rasey.
Dog, used as an adjective, as in dog’s mercury or dog Latin, can be disparaging: it means something is not quite the real thing. But dog rose is a direct translation of the Latin, Rosa Canina, so named in classical times because the root of the dog rose was believed to be a cure for the bite of a mad dog.
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Scientific name: Cardamine pratensis
Family: Brassicaceae
Common names: lady’s smock, milkmaids
Habitat: damp grassland
Conservation status: least concern, common and widespread.
Scientific name: Euphorbia amygdaloides
Habitat: old woodland
Conservation status: common
Header image and image [1] taken in the reserve by Clive Knight.
Wild garlic is another of those wildflower species that go by many different names: ramsons, cowleek or cowlick, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek and bear’s garlic are just a few of them.
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Bluebells photographed in the reserve on Monday by Cheryl Cronnie.
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There are cowslips (Primula veris) flowering in the reserve, beside the path through Simpsons, at the top of Village Green and the bottom of Kestrel Field.
While we are on the subject…
…here is a list of ragwort’s many common names, some of them downright vulgar:
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A Sunday Stroll
by Ian Bushell
As it was so pleasant, we thought we would take a gentle Sunday afternoon stroll.
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Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are the commonest of our wildflowers. They grow everywhere: between our paving stones, in flowerbeds, lawns and roadside verges, and straight up through the tarmac of a well-maintained driveway.
Continue reading “A closer look at weeds: part 2”
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of snake’s head fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) flowering in Simpson’s Field Copse: a stunning and increasingly rare sight.
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Anemone blanda…
…found and photographed in the reserve last week. Anemone blanda isn’t a native species so this is a garden escape but it naturalises easily in the partial shade of woodland edges and our bees will love it. Let’s make it welcome.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 