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Holcus lanatus
This is easy! It has a soft, tall, hairy stems – just run your fingers along it. No other grass feels like this. The bottom of its stem looks like pink stripey pyjamas – no other grass looks like this. There are pink flushes too in its long flower head which look beautiful when swaying in the wind.
The most widespread of all grasses in the UK, it’s found on all kinds of grasslands, from meadows to wastelands. On lawns, it flowers a little bit later than other grasses during No Mow May.
Creeping soft-grass – its nearest relative is only hairy on its nodes, the lumpy bits along the stem that look like knees.
It can be a dominating grass as it produces huge amounts of seed which can germinate almost immediately, and buried seed remains viable for many years.
Rubus fruticosus
Bramble is a rambling plant with delicate white or pink flowers which are followed later in the year by juicy blackberries. The stems have prickles and the leaves are hairy. Come autumn, its fruit is a widely recognised sight, turning from red to the near-black that gives them their name. Going ‘blackberrying’ is still a common practice today and one of the few acts of foraging to survive into the modern age. Bramble usually flowers in July and August, although its blossom has been known to appear in June. If it’s blackberries you’re after, they are usually adorning the branches in early autumn.
Throughout Britain, Bramble can be found in multiple habitats, including hedge banks, scrubland, woodland and waste ground.
As gardeners and walkers can testify, Bramble is doing well!
Melittis melissophyllum
Bastard Balm has large pea-like flowers that are highly aromatic which makes this woodland plant attractive to bumblebees and butterflies. This tall, striking plant likes shady places, but, sadly, has now become an uncommon sight. It is a member of the mint family. Bastard Balm has erect hairy stems on which grow opposite pairs of oval, bluntly toothed and softly hairy leaves. The flowers are white with a large pinkish purple blotch on the lower lip, and grow in the axils of the leaves.
It prefers shady environments, usually in woodland, on woodland edges and hedge banks, and is found only in south west England, the New Forest and south west Wales.
The distribution of Bastard Balm in Devon and Cornwall is apparently stable, but it has declined markedly elsewhere over the past twenty years as a result of overshading and pony grazing, although at some sites it has reappeared after scrub clearance and coppicing.
Silene flos-cuculi
The petals of Ragged Robin are deep pink or white, with each divided into four narrow lobes. Its leaves are narrow and rough to touch.
Ragged Robin’s dishevelled beauty is a common site in damp meadows. It also grows in wetter woodland.
Many counties have recorded a local decline in Ragged Robin numbers, mainly from habitat loss to agriculture. However, overall, it is still considered of least concern.
Silene dioica
Red Campion is a splash of pink commonly found on roadside verges in late spring and summer as the bluebells begin to fade. It is closely related to the rarer White Campion. Its deep pink flowers are 20mm across with notched petals on a softly hairy plant up to 1m tall. Opposite, it has oval, softly hairy leaves with hairy stems.
You can find Red Campion in lowland, shady sites, woods, hedge banks, scree and cliffs. It is a common sight along rural roadside verges.
Andromeda polifolia
Bog Rosemary is a beautiful relative of heather, with delicate pink bell-shaped flowers. The rosemary-like foliage of this wildflower never fails to enchant those lucky enough to find it during its brief flowering in late spring. The upper sides of the leaves are a similar grey-green and the undersides are silver.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bog Rosemary is often found in bogs. It is confined to central Britain, from mid-Wales (especially Cardiganshire) to southern Scotland. One of the special plants of the central Irish peat-bogs, it is rarer in the north, but occurs in Tyrone.
Bog Rosemary is a declining species and is a particular feature of the much-reduced bogs and flowers of Galloway.
Orchis ustulata
Burnt-tip Orchid is a white orchid with a deep crimson peak – the “burnt tip” in question.
This small orchid can be difficult to spot. Plants grow from a tuber which is replaced each year and tend to grow in small clumps. Pale green leaves form a rosette from which a flower spike holding between 15-50 flowers emerges.
Burnt-tip Orchid is confined to a scattering of sites in southern England, especially the Wiltshire Downs. It is found in short, chalk downland turf, and occasionally strays into meadows.
Burnt-tip Orchid was once more common and its scarce population continues to decline. This decline is due to changes in agricultural practices.
Orchis purpurea
The Lady Orchid is a tall, elegant herbaceous plant belonging to the Orchidaceae plant family.
Lady Orchid can reach 30–100 centimetres with the fleshy, bright green leaves being up to 15 cm long. The leaves are broad and oblong, forming a rosette about the base of the plant and surrounding the flower spike. These flower spikes can contain up to 200 individual flowers to which the stem upwardly points. Some of the flowers have the look of women in crinoline ball gowns. In terms of colour they are usually pale pink or rose, with a deeper purple ‘head’.
The Lady Orchid can be found in most parts of Europe (specifically Kent, England), Northern Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus.
Lady orchids usually grow in woodlands, oak forests, slopes and meadows, and can occasionally occur on savanna. They prefer to grow in limestone or chalk soil, in shady or sunny places. The Lady Orchid occurs in short grassland, on woodland edges and sometimes in open woodland. However, it is now very rarely found in the UK.
Lady Orchid’s flowering occurs in late April to June.
The sepals and upper petals are known to be purple, hence the Lady Orchid adopting the latin name purpurea.
Primula scotica
The ultimate northerner in our flora, Scottish Primrose grows on coastal promontories on the north coast of Scotland, including Dunnet Head, the northernmost tip of mainland Britain.
Scottish Primrose is low-growing and easily overlooked. It typically grows in heaths and coastal grasslands. As well as growing in the north coast of Scotland, this attractive flower also grows in Orkney, across the Pentland Firth, but nowhere else in the world. It is easily distinguished from the common primrose by its blueish-purple petals.
Scottish Primrose flowers from May to June.
Scottish Primrose is the county flower of Caithness.
Linnaea borealis
The beautiful Twinflower has two pink bell-like flowers on a slender stem, and a thicker stem below which creeps along the ground, forming small mats of the plant. It is one of our smallest and most delicate native flowers.
Twinflower is the County Flower of Inverness-shire.
Twinflower is confined to Scotland. It grows mainly in the native, open, pine woods, particularly in the Cairngorms, and is an Arctic-Alpine plant that is a relic of the Ice Age.
The clearance of native woodlands before the 1930s resulted in severe losses of this little flower. Continued habitat destruction and changes in woodland management have now reduced this plant to a handful of about 50 unrelated sites.
The isolation of the remaining sites of Twinflower leads to poor seed production and thus contributes to its continued decline. Other threats are overgrazing by deer or sheep, mechanical harvesting of timber, and the deliberate thickening of forests leading to excess shade.
One of Plantlife’s most exciting projects has been research into how the historical management of ancient pine plantation may have benefited Twinflower. A study of how timber was grown and extracted in the 18th and 19th centuries has led to a proposal to test whether these methods could boost Twinflower populations today.
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