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Tripleurospermum maritimum
Sea Mayweed is very similar to it’s relative the Scentless Mayweed. One way to spot the difference is that the Sea Mayweed has shorter and thicker leaves that are quite succulent.
It belongs to the Daisy family and, like it’s relative is a composite, which means the ‘flower’ head that you see is actually made up of many different tiny flowers. Just like the Daisy, these consist of white ray florets and then yellow disc florets in the centre.
Sea Mayweed is a perennial plant that grows up to 60cm high with 4cm flowering heads.
As the name suggests, this is a coastal plant that loves to be close to the sea. You can find it all around the UK, on cliffs, sea walls and beaches as well as waste ground that is near the ocean.
Sea Mayweed belongs to the Asteraceae family, which is the largest plant family in the world and contains species ranging from the Common Daisy Bellis perennis to the Lettuce and from Sunflowers Helianthus, to Artichokes!
Leucanthemum vulgare
In bloom around the summer solstice, this large daisy is a sure sign that summer has arrived.
Each large flower is actually not just one flower, but many. The yellow centre is made up of lots of small yellow flowers, just like its smaller relative, the daisy.
The nectar from these flowers is an important food source for pollinating insects like beetles, bees, and butterflies.
The Oxeye daisy looks similar to the daisy but it is a much larger plant. It is taller, reaching a height of up to 70 cm, and its larger flowerheads can be up to 6 cm across. The base leaves are spoon-shaped and up to 8 cm long. The stem leaves are toothed and more oblong.
Oxeye daisy is a common plant that grows in grassy places. It can be seen in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, dunes, coastal cliffs, verges and waste ground.
In both urban and rural areas, the Oxeye daisy can be found lining roadsides in grass verges, making them a common sight for many during British summertime.
Galium tricornutum
Corn Cleavers is an annual wildflower rather like the common Cleavers but much rarer and not so clingy.
Corn Cleavers is a rough, straggly plant with whorls of narrow leaves. The stems are sometimes square in cross-section. It differs from its common relative as it has cream-coloured flowers, as opposed to the white ones of the common weed. The fruits are spherical nutlets hanging in pairs at the leaf axils. As they lack hooked barbs, they do not stick to your clothes.
It used to be a common weed of cereal crops, but has declined dramatically over the last 60 years owing to changing agricultural methods. Corn Cleavers is now found in only two sites in central-southern England. It prefers disturbed ground, mainly in arable fields, but also on hedge-banks and sea cliffs.
Corn Cleavers is classified as Critically Endangered. The use of fertilisers and herbicides, the loss of field margins and the development of highly productive crop varieties have led to its decline.
Smyrnium olusatrum
Alexanders is a large, early emerging hedgerow plant that grows up to 1.5 metres tall and has a thick main stem that can become hollow. This plant has many clusters of little yellow-green umbel flowers appearing towards the top suspended by offshoots from the main stem. The shiny green leaves smell of celery. Alexanders cbe confused with cow parsley but is generally larger and thicker stemmed.
Alexanders is found mainly towards the coast, probably due to its sensitivity to frosts, which are less common in coastal areas. It is more common in the south and rare in most of Scotland. It can be found on cliffs, hedge banks, road sides and other waste land areas.
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.
A spiny evergreen shrub with yellow flowers.
Few plants make such an impact on the landscape as flowering gorse, through both its colour and scent. The latter is a distinctive coconut and vanilla smell, said to be quite pungent to some individuals, but weak to others.
The cracking of the seed-pods in hot sunshine is said to sound similar to the clacking calls of Stonechats which perch on its sprigs.
Banks, heaths and sea-cliffs. Also a signature plant of rough open space and commonland.
Folklore says you should only kiss your beloved when gorse is in flower. The good news is that either common gorse or the closely related western gorse is pretty much in bloom whatever the time of year! In fact, a few yellow flowers can generally be seen even in harsh winter months.
Its peak time, however, is April and May when almost all the plant is covered in bright yellow blossom.
It was voted the County Flower of Belfast.
Before the Industrial Revolution, gorse was valued as a fuel for fires and kilns, as well as baker’s ovens. After crushing the spines (e.g. in cider mills), gorse also made valuable feeding for stock including cattle and horses in wintertime.
Straight stems of gorse make excellent walking-sticks and the flowers can be used to make a Gorse wine. It also makes a convenient anchor for washing, acts as a chimney brush and, when in flower, as a source of colour for Easter eggs. Gorse and heather have been bound together to make besom brooms. Gardeners have been known to lay chopped gorse over emerging peas to deter pigeons and mice.
In order to prevent over-exploitation, there have historically been a wide range of conditions on harvesting, such as in Oxfordshire where people were only allowed as much as they could carry on their backs. In Hertfordshire there were regulations prohibiting cutting outside a certain parish and digging-up entire bushes. In some places even the type and size of cutting implements have been specified.
Three species of Gorse that exist in the UK are Ulex europaeus, Ulex gallii and Ulex minor:
Hygrocybe coccinea
With a preference for unfertilised land, the Scarlet Waxcap (Hygrocybe coccinea) can be found on cropped grassland and woodland clearings. They often appear in large troops (a group).
Hygrocybe means ‘watery head’, these waxcaps are always very moist. Coccinea means bright red (as in the food colouring cochineal) . The image above shows the justification of the name.
The Crimson Waxcap
This autumn, help Plantlife find Britain’s most colourful and important fungi – waxcaps.
Liparis loeselii
One of our rarer plants, its pretty pale yellow flowers liven up our dunes.
This wild flower is difficult to spot as it is small (around 8cm tall) and inconspicuous. The leaves wrap around the bottom of the single stem which supports several flowers towards the top of the plant.
The orchid is dependent on the unique, open conditions of fenland, a naturally marshy area. Fen orchid needs wet areas with bare sand, short grasses and a lot of calcium in the soil.
The species has declined due to habitat loss as a result of wetland being reclaimed for agricultural use or fens being allowed to “scrub over” and slowly revert to woodland. Plantlife has worked with Suffolk Wildlife Trust to translocate Fen Orchid to restored habitats.
The majority of the Fen Orchid populations were lost through drainage and in the late 20th Century through peat digging and mowing. Other threats include climate change, inappropriate water and habitat management.
After a decade of research and partnership work, the orchid has been re-discovered at former sites and the total population has risen through proper management.
Read more
Become a grassland guardian and help restore 10,000 hectares of species-rich grassland by 2030. Donate today.
Juniperis communis
A prickly, sprawling evergreen shrub in the Cypress family with short spiky leaves.
Juniper blooms with small yellow flowers, followed by ‘berries’ – actually fleshy cones, that start green but ripen to blue-black.
These are famously used to flavour gin and certain meat dishes particularly game and venison. Used whole they impart a bitter, crunchy bite to savoury dishes. In fact, the word “Gin” derives from either genièvre or jenever – the French and Dutch words for “juniper”
Juniper is dioecious, which means that it is either male or female, unlike most tree species. The form of individual bushes varies from being low and prostrate at the one extreme to cylindrical and conical at the other.
In the Saving England’s Lowland Juniper project, Plantlife joined forces with landowners, supported by Natural England, to revitalise Juniper across southern England. 48 patches of land at nine sites in Wiltshire and Oxfordshire were scraped back to create a grassland habitat suitable for Juniper to regenerate. Read the full story here.
Did you know that on the high peaks of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and on the Glyderau there’s a forest that is little more than one foot high? A forest of Juniper nestled among the rocks in the crags and crevices. Discover the twisted, gnarled woodlands at the highest, wildest peaks in Wales, here.
Through the Tlysau Mynydd Eryri project, we worked with Bangor University to undertake a study to work out what the composition of this woodland may have been in Wales.
Visit our project page here to find out more.
Tephroseris integrifolia subsp. maritima
The South Stack Fleawort is found along a small section of the North Wales Coastal Path on Ynys Gybi (Holy Island).
Found only between Parth Dafarch and RSPB South Stack Nature Reserve
Grassy cliff tops and vegetated gullies
May and early June
Plantlife supports a project to understand why this subspecies of Fleawort is only found in this small area of Ynys Gybi and the ecological requirements of the plants.
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