Monday 11 July 2011

Spotting Wildflowers in Kent

We spent last weekend in the beauitful Kent countryside.  Whilst Little Man held ladybirds and Gorgeous chased butterflies, I tasked Little Lady with spotting as many wildflowers as possible.  Her next task is to try and find the names for the following:



























I recognised daisies, dandelions, buttercups (easy!), Queen Anne's lace, will have to try and find the names of the others - which ones did you recognise?

6 comments:

  1. i recognised almost all of them as weeds! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I only recongised the dandelions and daisies. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello!
    i'm so glad you enjoyed your visit to Kent, and i hope you will always continue your love of flowers and nature!

    Here are the flowers you have posted, as an encouragement for you -

    Pic #2 - Redshank (persicaria maculosa) - you can see the distinctive black mark on the leaf.

    Pic #3 - Pineapple Weed (matricaria discoidea) - if you crush the head it actually smells of pineapple, and tastes very nice

    Pic #4 - Buttercup. The leaves in the background suggest Creeping Buttercup (ranunculus repens) with its large celery-like leaves rather than the taller Meadow Buttercup (ranunculus acris) which has thinner spikier leaves

    Pic #5 - Groundsel (senecio vulgaris)

    Pic #6 - Creeping Thistle (cirsium arvense)

    Pic #7 - Hogweed (heracleum sphondylium) - you can actually see the leaves in the background which are different from the Queen Anne's Lace.

    Pic #8 - Bramble / Blackberry (rubus)

    Pic #9 - White Clover (trifolium repens)

    Pic #10 - Daisy (bellis perennis) - this is said to take its name from the phrase "Day's Eye"

    Pic #11 - Bittersweet (solanum dulcamara)

    Pic #12 - Probably Field Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) but could be Hairy Bindweed (convolvulus pulchra)

    Pic #13 - Hedgrerow Crane's-Bill (geranium pyrenaicum) - there's a similar Dove's-Foot Cranesbill.

    david (from Edinburgh)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi David,
    All I can say is WOW!!! I am seriously impressed that you know all of these. Thank you so much for taking the time to name them for me.
    Now that you mention it, Pic 13 does look like bindweed, I should know, it loves to grow in my garden despite my best efforts.

    By the way, I love Edinburgh, such a beautiful city, hope to visit again this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you!
    I've been looking at plants for about 2 years now; i've found about 400 beside my village. We've got a canal, old quarries, woods, boggy bits, dry, sunny, shady, disturbed parts... so many habitats, it's amazing the great variety that sprouts out of it all! I photograph all the plants in detail and keep track of them.
    The way I got to know plants was to take a 2 x 2 metre area nearby home and discover every plant in it. First familiarise fully with what's there, and then when that's done just leaf through a wild flower book page-by-page and 80% of them will jump out at you. Then do a similar process for all the plants where you *regularly* walk. By choosing regular places you walk, you'll get to know those plants really well. That'll bring you up to about 200+ plants, by which time you'll have got used to your flower book and how to identify them (which for new flowers, is best using their flowers!)
    Photographing them in detail - flower, leaf, stem, shape, hairiness etc - really helps, as you get to deeply interact with the plant and notice all its characteristics.
    Hope this helps, and wish you always much joy of nature!
    d

    ReplyDelete