Snowdrop

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by theresagreen in British wildflowers, flowering in February, flowering in January, flowering in March, folklore of plants, North Wales, white flowered plants, wildflowers of Wales

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Galanthus nivalis L., snowdrop

SNOWDROP – Galanthus nivalis

Flowering : (January) February to March

Snowdrops are iconic flowers that traditionally herald the ending of winter and are the first bulbs to bloom and to show signs of life after the winter months. In Britain, Snowdrops are possibly both native and naturalised and were not recorded as growing wild here until the 1770s. It is likely that many of our colonies of wild Snowdrops originated with ecclesiastical plantings. The pure white blooms of the Snowdrop have long been accepted by the Catholic Church as a symbol of Candlemas, celebrated on February 2^nd, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, and their association with monastic sites is apparent right across Britain.

Common English name: Snowdrop Scientific name: Galanthus nivalis L. Welsh:Eirlys

Other common names: Candlemas bells, Mary’s taper, Snow-piercer, February fairmaids, Dingle-dangle

Description: Height 15-25cm (6-10″). Strap-shaped bluish-green leaves grow at the base of each stem, which bears a single drooping blossom. The flower has three spreading sepals that grow longer than the its green-tipped petals.

Conservation status: Rated as Near Threatened (NT) according to IUCN Red List criteria.

Habitat: On the European continent Snowdrops grow in wild habitats, in damp woods and meadows up to 1,600 metres.

One of the local names for the snowdrop is the ‘snow piercer’ and this describes exactly how the flower pushes its head up through the snow or winter-hardened earth to brighten otherwise gloomy February woodlands.

A small leaf-like spathe, or protective sheath, covers the tip of the flowering stem and enables the snowdrop flower to force its way up through the snow.

FOLKLORE

Although the flowers are sanctified for Candlemas, the snowdrop is one of the many white blossoms that are still regarded as being unlucky if brought into the house. In parts of Northumberland, Westmorland and Hampshire, single flowers particularly are still viewed as ‘death-tokens’. This may be as one Victorian explanation was that the flower “looked for all the world like a corpse in its shroud”. According to the ‘language of the flowers’, the snowdrop was an emblem for virginity, and a few blooms enclosed in an envelope were often used to warn off over-ardent wooers. In a similar vein, in Yorkshire there was an old custom, again celebrated on Candlemas, for village maidens to gather bunches of snowdrops and wear them as symbols of purity. (extracts from Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey)

RELATIONSHIP WITH INSECTS

The snowdrop provides an early source of nectar for bees, which in turn pollinate the flowers. Nectar is secreted by the green-spotted inner petals of the snowdrop and as the bee forages, it brushes onto the female stigma some of the pollen that has stuck to its body whilst visiting other flowers.

TRADITIONAL USES

Ornamental. Medicinal. Insecticide.

MEDICINAL USES

The alkaloid Galantamine, which was initially isolated from snowdrops, has been used in treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, neuritis and neuralgia. In parts of eastern Europe, rubbing snowdrops on the forehead was a folk remedy used for pain relief.

Known hazards: Snowdrops and their bulbs are poisonous to humans and can cause nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting if eaten in large quantities.

Winter Heliotrope

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by theresagreen in British wildflowers, flowering in January, North Wales, pinkish-lilac flowered plants, wildflowers of Wales

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Petasites fragrans, Winter heliotrope, winter wildflower

Almost hiding the ground with its leaves, Winter heliotrope is a creeping, patch-forming perennial plant that thrives in damp places, often beneath trees and shrubs where it may well overpower other herbaceous plants. The rounded leaves are present all year, then the flowers appear from December to March, although are at their best at the beginning of January.

Winter heliotrope – Petasites fragrans

The pinkish-lilac flowers are 10-12mm across, have a delicious vanilla or heliotrope scent and are carried in spikes 20-25mm long.

Fruits are achenes.

The leaves are present all year round. They are a pleasing rounded heart shape, green above and greyish beneath, measure about 20mm across and are long-stalked.

The name heliotrope derives from the old idea that the inflorescences of the plant turned their rows of flowers to follow the sun. Helios is Greek for ‘sun’ and trepeine means ‘to turn.’

Heliotrope is much used in the perfume industry and features in many popular fragrances.

Heliotrope is also the name of a colour taken from the pink-purple of the flowers of a species of this family of plants, first recorded as a colour name in English in 1882.

Eyebright

11 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by theresagreen in British wildflowers, flowering in August, flowering in July, folklore of plants, plants of calcareous grassland, semi-parasitic wildflowers, traditional medicinal plants, traditional uses of plants, white flowered plants, wildflowers of grassland, wildflowers of Wales, wildflowers on clifftops

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Common eyebright, Effros, Euphrasia micrantha, Euphrasia nemorosa, Eyebright, orobanchaceae, scrophulariaceae

Common Eyebright Euphrasia nemorosa (formerly E.officinalis): other English names: Euphrasy: in Welsh it is Effros

One of the prettiest wildflowers of late summer, brightening the British countryside from our lowland moors to mountain peaks. Adaptable little plants, Eyebright species are generally semi-parasitic, feeding off the nutrients from the roots of nearby grasses in undisturbed habitats.

Common Eyebright-Euphrasia nemorosa-Little Orme

Flowering: (June) July to September

Height: Low to Short; 5-25cm (2-8″)

Native to Great Britain, Eyebright is a member of the Orobanchaceae family (formerly included in the Scrophulariaceae family).

Status: Widespread throughout and locally common, but declining.

Habitat & Ecology: Found in a wide variety of undisturbed grassy places on downs, pastures, heaths, cliffs and woods. Semi-parasitic they grow successfully only where their roots can attach themselves to other plants such as grasses, clovers and plantains. For this reason, they are quite useful plants in terms of keeping vigorous grasses at bay in order that wildflowers can thrive.

DESCRIPTION

Eyebrights are extremely variable in appearance with 20 or more species that have a tendency to hybridise with each other, resulting in about 60 micro-species, so many would need an expert to make more than an intelligent guess at identification. My description refers mainly to the most frequently-occurring Common Eyebright – Euphrasia nemerosa. I have included images of variations that I have found locally, but would not like to even hazard a guess as to whether or not they may be recognised sub-species.

Eyebright, reddish stems, lilac flowers

Eyebright, lilac flowers

The small flowers are 5-10mm long, in leafy spikes; the corolla is two-lipped; lower lip is three-lobed; whitish in colour, but sometimes wholly or partly lilac; they have a yellow throat and purple veins, (nectar guides for insects), radiate from the centre towards the edges of the upper and lower petals: fruits are capsules: the stem is strong and branched, branches coming off in opposite pairs leaves are more or less oval, sharply toothed, pale, dark , bronzy or purplish-green and borne in opposite pairs.

140805TGNW-8- Eyebright with purple leaves-Bryn Euryn

Most of the plants growing on Bryn Euryn are strongly tinged reddish-purple

RELATIONSHIP WITH INSECTS

Pollination: The lower lip of the flower acts as a landing stage for visiting insects which are then guided to the nectar source by the purple lines marked on its surface. The upper lip protects the stamens and the style, the latter projecting forwards so it touches visiting insects first and receives pollen from another flower, thus ensuring cross-pollination. As the insect probes deeply for nectar, pollen is showered onto its back from the stamens which are above it.

ETYMOLOGY ( THE PLANT NAME )

160805-Bryn Euryn- Eyebright-with purple on petals

There are sometimes a few plants occurring on the downland slope of Bryn Euryn that are overall more bronze-green with flowers that are lilac with large purple blotches

The generic name Euphrasia is derived from the Greek word euphraino, translated as ‘to gladden’, possibly a reference to the plant’s reputed medicinal powers ‘to gladden the eye’. The common name Eyebright may have come about for similar reasons or maybe just because the flowers do indeed have a bright eye.

FOLKLORE, LEGEND & LITERATURE

The 17th century botanist, William Cole recorded in his book titled Adam in Eden, that eyebright was the herb used by the Linnet to clear its eyesight. In the 18th century, the belief was held that certain plants, based on their appearance or characteristics could cure human ailments. So maybe it is not surprising that this plant, with its ‘bright-eyed’ appearance was thought to improve poor eyesight. In ‘Paradise Lost’, the poet Milton wrote:

Michael from Adam’s eyes the filme remov’d

Which that false Fruit that promis’d clearer sight

Had bred; then purg’d with Euphrasie and Rue

The visual Nerve, for he had much to see.

MODERN HERBAL OR MEDICINAL USES

An extract made from eyebright and the herb Golden seal is still used today as a lotion to relieve eye irritations and eye strain.

August on the Bryn

10 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by theresagreen in British wildflowers, Bryn Euryn Local Nature Reserve, flora of a limestone hill, flowering in August, North Wales, plants of calcareous grassland, purple-flowered plants, semi-parasitic wildflowers, wildflowers of Wales, wildflowers on limestone, yellow-flowered plants

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centaurea nigra, Common eyebright, common knapweed, Euphrasia nemorosa, hazelnut, hemp agrimony, insects on hemp agrimony, insects on knapweed, insects on ragwort, odontites vernus, ragwort, red bartsia, senecio jacobea

August 5th

In the woods foliage is verdant and heavy, reaching out to the light across the tracks and rides. But the signs of a summer past its peak are beginning to show as plants divert their energies into their most important task; that of fruit production.

The Hazels bear a few fully-formed nuts, but here at least only a few will achieve maturity. Grey squirrels grab all they can reach, careless of whether they are ripe or not, leaving the debris of their wanton pickings strewn on the ground beneath the trees.

Unripened Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts picked and discarded by grey squirrels

In the meadow the grasses have set seed, their long stems golden and hay-dry. The mid-summer flush of wildflowers has more or less subsided with only scattered blooms of dainty harebell, lady’s bedstraw and white clover tucked down in the long grass.

In their stead the tougher, bolder-coloured blooms characteristic of late summer are peaking and will provide the nectar and pollen vital to the sustenance of the insect population.

The swathe of Hemp Agrimony bordering between the meadow’s edge and the trees, was literally buzzing with insects on this sunny but windy day. Many of the visitors were male bumblebees. With no hive duties to perform they have only themselves to care for and can afford to spend what remains of their lives lingering long and gorging on nectar. The plant is a favourite of the bigger butterflies too – you may see Red Admiral or a gorgeous Peacock feasting here – provided there are any about of course.

Helophilus sp. hoverfly

Bombus terrestris bumblebee

Gatekeeper

Ragwort is not as abundant here as in other places locally, but what there is was well-visited by a variety of insects from tiny hoverflies to butterflies.

One particular flowerhead was occupied by a damaged 6-spot Burnet moth that was still in situ a couple of hours later as I passed by on my way home. It will be safe there- the moths are poisonous, so left alone by potential predators.

Tiny hoverfly

Bombus pratorum

6-spot Burnet moth

One of the more unusual wildflowers found in this little hillside meadow is the Wild Onion, or Nodding Wild Onion as it is sometimes referred to. In previous years I have found it was particularly attractive to the little Common Blue butterflies, but alas there were no blue butterflies to be found today and the flowers are already producing fruits – a rounded cluster of tiny bulbils.

(Nodding) Wild Onion- Allium vineale

Fruiting heads of Wild Onion

There are two semi-parasitic wildflowers to be found here now. One is the lovely little Eyebright which has been in flower for a while now but that will continue into September; the other in lesser amounts, is Red Bartsia. Both plants take their nourishment from the roots of grasses. Much of the Eyebright here on Bryn Euryn shows up from where it grows low in the grass as all parts of the plant other than the flowers are tinged a strong bronzy-purple.

Red Bartsia – Odontites vernus

Higher up towards the summit of the hill and again on the downland slope Knapweed is more prolific. It too is beloved by insects, but on a windy day such as today when the flowers are vigorously bending and swaying, they make for a tricky landing and even trickier photographs.

Helophilus sp. hoverfly

6 spot Burnet moth

Hogweed is still flowering strongly and feeding insects whilst simultaneously setting seed.

And there are ripe blackberries and sweet wild raspberries to add little treats to the walk home.

Blackberries

Raspberry-Rubus idaeus

The ‘Bryn’ referred to in the post title is Bryn Euryn, a limestone hill of which much is a Local Nature Reserve, located in Rhos-on-Sea (Llandrillo-yn-Rhos), in Conwy, North Wales. Grid Reference: SH 832798

The Bryn is the basis of many posts on my longer-established blog ‘Everyday Nature Trails’.

Yarrow-Achillea millefolium

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by theresagreen in asteraceae, British wildflowers, daisy family, flowering in August, flowering in July, folklore of plants, traditional medicinal plants, traditional uses of plants, wildflowers important to insects, wildflowers of Wales, wildflowers on limestone, yellow-flowered plants

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achillea millefolium, meadow wildflowers, milddail, roadside wildflowers, wildflower essential oils, wildflower with white flowers, yarrow

Yarrow-Achillea millefolium, also known in English as woundwort; nosebleed plant; staunch grass; old man’s pepper; devil’s nettle, sanguinary; milfoil; soldier’s woundwort; thousand-leaf, and thousand-seal. In Welsh it is Milddail.

Yarrow is tough, a survivor in a wide variety of habitats, with a history of use by mankind culturally and medicinally reaching back to ancient times.

Flowering: (June) July to September

14/7/16-Yarrow lining a sandy path of West Shore, Llandudno

Habitat: Yarrow grows from sea level to 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) in elevation. It thrives throughout the British Isles in meadows and hedgerows, on road verges and wasteland and in sandy coastal places. Having deep, water-seeking tap roots, yarrow is able to resist drought and to persist on roadsides and verges that are mown: cutting blades are usually set high, resulting in only the flowers being lost while the rest of the plant remains to grow again. They also flower after the spring cut and by the time the autumn cut is made, most of the plants are seeding.

Description:

A plant native to Great Britain, Yarrow is a member of the Asteraceae (Daisy) family.

Yarrow is an upright, short to medium height, downy, strongly aromatic perennial plant. Stems are furrowed, stiff, unbranched and creeping. The flowers are 4-6mm across and arranged in clusters in flat-topped heads comprising yellowish disc florets and white to pink ray florets. The attractive feathery leaves are dark green and finely divided. Fruits are achenes.

: Flowers

: Achenes

THE PLANT NAME

The genus name, Achillea is said to have been attributed to the plant as Achilles, the legendary Greek warrior-hero, was said to have applied yarrow to heal wounds made by iron weapons in the Trojan War. The species name millefolium, meaning ‘thousand leaf’, refers to the plants numerous feathery leaves.The English name yarrow comes from the Old English word gearwe, which is related to both the Dutch word gerw and the Old High German word garawa.

IMPORTANCE TO INSECTS

It attracts predatory wasps, which drink the nectar and then use insect pests as food for their larvae.

Wasp nectaring on yarrow flowers- Llandudno

Yarrow provides a rich source of nectar in late summer when many earlier wildflowers have finished flowering. It is particularly attractive to predatory wasps and hoverflies and is useful in gardens as a companion plant to attract these insects, which drink the nectar and then take insect pests as food for their larvae.

FOLKLORE & LEGEND

Yarrow seedhead

In East Anglia, as late as 1900, yarrow was credited with the power to avert spells and sickness if it was scattered on doorsteps and hung on cradles on Midsummer Eve. In the Fens, yarrow-stuffed cushions were a safeguarding household accessory. Similarly in Ireland, yarrow was held to drive away evil and sickness, but also as a potion that would not only increase physical attractiveness, but also protect people from being hurt by the opposite sex. In a Gaelic chant a woman says: ” I will pick the green yarrow that my figure may be fuller… that my voice will be sweeter… that my lips will be like the juice of the strawberry… I shall wound every man, but no man shall harm me.” In the Hebrides a leaf held against the eyes was believed to give second sight.

TRADITIONAL USES

In the Middle Ages, yarrow was part of an herbal mixture known as gruit used in the flavoring of beer prior to the use of hops. Yarrow has also been used as a food or in teas, and was very popular as a vegetable in the 17th century. The younger leaves are said to be a pleasant leaf vegetable when cooked like spinach, or in a soup. Yarrow is sweet with a slight bitter taste. The dried leaves can also be used as a flavouring herb in cooking.

MEDICINAL USES

A. millefolium has a well-documented historical use in traditional medicine, often because of its astringent effects. The herb is purported to be a diaphoretic (inducing sweating), astringent, tonic,^]stimulant and mild aromatic. It contains isovaleric acid, salicylic acid, asparagin, sterols, flavonoids, bitters, tannins, and coumarins. This medicinal use is also reflected in some of the common names mentioned above, such as ‘staunchweed’ and ‘soldier’s woundwort’.

As with Achilles, in Great Britain the Anglo-Saxons also believed that the plant, which is sometimes also referred to as woundwort, would instantly cleanse and heal injuries made with sharp-edged tools. In this event it was pounded with grease and applied as an ointment or poultice. Another old name ‘nosebleed plant’ is a little confusing, some sources claim the fresh leaves will staunch a nosebleed, whilst others say it will cause a nosebleed, thus relieving a headache or ‘megrim’. In Suffolk an old rhyme says ‘Green yarrow, green yarrow, you bears a white blow, If my love loves me, my nose will bleed now!’

AROMATHERAPY

The dark blue essential oil, extracted by steam distillation of the flowers, has been traditionally used for a wide variety of complaints including fever, nervous tension and digestive problems and also as an anti-inflammatory and in chest rubs for colds and influenza. It is said to promote hair growth and as it has astringent properties, to tone skin. This oil also kills the larvae of the mosquito Aedes albopictus.

where the wildflowers are

Category Archives: British wildflowers

Snowdrop

SNOWDROP – Galanthus nivalis

Winter Heliotrope

Eyebright

August on the Bryn

Yarrow-Achillea millefolium