Red dead Nettle
This is a red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum), the commonest of weeds. It flowers for most of the year in untidy vegetable plots, roadside verges and, in this case, Local Nature Reserve car parks. Nobody gives it a second glance but its flowers, hidden among its topmost purple leaves, are extraordinarily beautiful.
A message from Simon Henstock:
I spotted this growing in the hedgerow down the Country Park this evening. Is it Shepherd’s Purse? 
Simon Knight has sent us pictures of bluebells and says that this weekend, they will be at their best. Come and see.
The extraordinary flowers of wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) growing in the Arboretum.
Conservation status: common
Pictures by Suzanne Humphries
Common spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, in the woods around the edge of Village Green
A picture from seven year old Amelia Newblé of the four-leafed clover she found in the park. Thank you Amelia.
The Friends have recently planted 150 primrose plug plants in one of the wooded copses in the Village Green area.
Continue reading “Primroses”
The snowdrops in the copse in the southern corner of Village Green are beginning to open.
Video by Neil Bromhall
Header picture taken in the park by DKG
Here’s one of last year’s posts from snowdrop time:
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
This is tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia.
Continue reading
photos by Suzanne Humphries
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 