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Ivy

Hedera helix

A evergreen woody climbing wild plant, commonly seen on old walls and tree trunks.

Ivy is often found carpeting the ground or growing up walls and trees.

Its flowers bloom in an umbrella-like spread. In fact the term for such a bloom – an ‘umbel’ – derives from the same source as umbrella – umbra, the Latin word for shade.

It’s leaves are dark green glossy above, paler below. On flowering shoots leaves are pointed oval.

Distribution

Widespread throughout the UK.

Habitat

Woods, hedgerows, rocks and walls. Very commonly found on tree trunks.

Best time to see

Flowers September to November.

Did you know?

  • Ivy is, of course, celebrated with holly in the Christmas Carol of the same name. Its symbolism, however, predates Christianity. As evergreen species both holly and ivy were seen as especially powerful during the leafless days of winter. Sprigs were said to ward off evil spirits and inside the home kept the house goblins at bay. Of the two, ivy – shapely and curvaceous – was said to represent the feminine as compared to the spiky, angular masculinity of holly.
  • Local names include Bentwood, Bindwood, Hibbin, Ivin, Ivery and the enchanting Love-Stone used in Leicestershire.
  • In the Highlands and Islands it has been used as protection, to keep evil away from milk, butter and the animals. Circlets of ivy alone, or ivy plaited with Rowan and honeysuckle were hung over the lintels of byres and put under milk vessels.

Other Species

Oak moss
with little tiny branches almost like a a lot of green tiny deer antlers

Oak moss

Evernia prunastri

Smoky Spindles
Smoky Spindles

Smoky Spindles

Hygrocybe pratensis

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Ramalina fastigiata 

Common Knapweed

Centaurea nigra

Also known as “Hardheads” or “Black knapweed”, this wild flower is one of our toughest meadow plants.

Knapweed is a firm favourite of our pollinating insects, being a source of good quality nectar. And as well as supporting our bee, butterflies and beetles its seeds provide food for many birds.

Identification

Somewhat thistle-like, common knapweed can be identified by its slightly spherical black/brown flower head, growing alone, topped with purple, pink or (more rarely) white. The bracts are triangular in shape. Its leaves are linear to lance-like in shape with incomplete lobes.

Greater knapweed – a close relation – is similar but its flowers are more garish and opulent and its leaves are fully lobed.

Distribution

Found throughout Britain.

Habitat

Knapweed is a wild flower of meadows and other grassland habitats from lawns to cliff-tops. It can often be seen on road verges where wildlife is allowed to thrive and also in hedges.

Best time to see

In flower, June to September.

Did you know…

  • In days gone by eligible young women would play a love-divination game by pulling out the rays and putting the plucked knapweed flower in their blouse. When as-yet unopened florets began to bloom it would tell her the man of her dreams was near. This game to foretell the future of love is also played with Plantago major.
  • Most of the local names including Bachelor’s buttons, Blue bottle and Iron knobs are explained by the hard, knobby heads, the bottle-shaped involucre and the toughness of the plant.
  • Knapweed was used for ruptures and wounds, bruises, sores, scabs and sore throat, etc.

Other Species

Oak moss
with little tiny branches almost like a a lot of green tiny deer antlers

Oak moss

Evernia prunastri

Smoky Spindles
Smoky Spindles

Smoky Spindles

Hygrocybe pratensis

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Ramalina fastigiata 

Lady’s Bedstraw

Galium verum

‘O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth’ – Chaucer, The Merchant’s Tale”

Also known as ‘yellow bedstraw’, a frothy blossom with a wonderful honey scent.

A very distinctive plant with soft clusters of bright yellow flowers that smell of hay. The leaves are narrow, dark green and in whorls. It often creeps amongst grasses, sending up tall flowering stems in summer.

It is related to the plant cleavers, or ‘Sticky Willy’ Galium aparine.

Distribution

Lady’s bedstraw can be found growing across the UK.

Habitat

Meadows, road verges, cliff tops, hedges, dunes and other grassy places.

Best time to see

In the summer months, when in bloom and producing its scent.

Did you know…

  • Before the advent of the modern mattress, lady’s bedstraw was a popular choice for bedding thanks to its soft and springy quality and pleasant scent (when dried it smells of hay). Also it has an astringent quality which may also have brought it into the bed against fleas.
  • According to one medieval legend, the Virgin Mary Herself gave birth whilst lying on a bed of lady’s bedstraw and bracken. The bracken refused to acknowledge the baby Jesus and in doing so lost its flower. Lady’s bedstraw, however, bloomed in recognition. As it did so its flowers changed from white to gold.
  • The flower also has an association with giving birth in Norse mythology. In the past Scandinavians used lady’s bedstraw as a sedative for women in labour. Frigg, the goddess of married women, was said to help women give birth. As such they called it ‘Frigg’s grass’.
  • Its flowers were also used as an alternative to renin to coagulate milk in cheese production (sadly, the exact method of how this was done have been lost). Additionally, in Gloucestershire, it was used to add colour to Double Gloucester.

Other Species

Oak moss
with little tiny branches almost like a a lot of green tiny deer antlers

Oak moss

Evernia prunastri

Smoky Spindles
Smoky Spindles

Smoky Spindles

Hygrocybe pratensis

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Ramalina fastigiata 

Wild Leek

Allium ampeloprasum

A native wild relative of the familiar garden vegetable.

Wild Leek has globe-like heads on stems that can grow to a metre tall. Its leaves are just like the common garden leek, although the stem is not quite so fat. All parts have a strong onion scent.

County flower of Cardiff/Caerdydd.

Found wild on Flat Holm island just off the Cardiff coast, what better than the wild leek for representing the nation’s capital?

Distribution

Just one locality on Ynys Mon (Anglesey) in North Wales and on a couple of islands in the Severn Estuary, two other forms of wild leek (var. bulbifera and var. babingtonii) are distributed around the coast of the British Isles.

Habitat

Sandy and rocky places near the sea, especially in old fields and hedge banks, on sheltered cliff-slopes, by paths and tracks and in drainage ditches and other disturbed places.

Best time to see

Flowers from late June to August

A wild leek flower head

Status

Wild Leek is believed to have be en introduced to Britain. It is a scarce species, naturalised in only a few areas.

Did you know…

  • The Wild Leek is the Wild crop relative of our cultivated leek but looks more like Elephant Garlic than the green and white leek you would recognise.
  • The leek is one of the two national plants of Wales – the story goes that King Cadwaladr of Gwynedd ordered his soldiers (the Cymry) to identify themselves in an ancient battle against the Saxons by wearing a leek on their helmet.
  • Wild leeks were probably introduced to Wales from the Eastern Mediterranean as early as the bronze age but are unfortunately now Classed as Vulnerable to extinction on the Welsh Red List of Plants. Plantlife supports a project to ensure that the Wild Leek is protected at its only site in Wales.

Other Species

Oak moss
with little tiny branches almost like a a lot of green tiny deer antlers

Oak moss

Evernia prunastri

Smoky Spindles
Smoky Spindles

Smoky Spindles

Hygrocybe pratensis

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Fanfare of trumpets lichen

Ramalina fastigiata 

Wood Sorrel

Olaxis acetosella

Wood Sorrel flower

A pretty woodland wildflower, with delicate white flowers that sit amongst distinctive citrus-green leaves. Once used in cooking for its lemony taste – but don’t eat too much raw as it can upset the stomach!

How to spot it

A low, creeping herb, with long-stalked, light green, trefoil-shaped leaves. The flowers have five white petals, veined in lilac or purple.

Where it grows

In woodland, on hedgerows, banks and in other moist, usually shaded, habitats throughout the British Isles.

Best time to see

In flower April to May, and sometimes a second time in summer.

How’s it doing?

Remaining widespread throughout the U.K., it is one of the few species able to survive the deep shade of conifer plantations.

A patch of Wood Sorrel in a woodlands

3 things you might not know

  • It acts as a weathervane: the leaves fold up before and during rain and when it gets dark.
  • Its little flowers can often be seen in the forefront of works of art by the 15th Century Italian painter, Fra Angelico (c.1387-1455).
  • It was said that St. Patrick used its trifoliate leaves to illustrate the Holy Trinity, since when it has been dedicated to him. Thus, it is one of the plants known as the ‘shamrock’, and used to symbolise Ireland.

Other Species

Bluebell
Bluebell close-up.

Bluebell

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bugle
A close up of a blue bugle plant.

Bugle

Ajuga reptans

Cowslip
Cowslip Close Up.

Cowslip

Primula Veris

Germander Speedwell

Veronica chamaedrys

A blue Germander Speedwell flower in a lush green meadow.

A low, creeping plant, germander speedwell spreads with thin stems that creep over the surface of the ground, forming distinct mats or patches amongst the grass or hedgerow.

Its small leaves are triangular in shape and deeply toothed.

The beautiful bright blue flowers – which can be a centimetre across and have a white eye – are carried on small spikes in the axils of the leaves. Note that if the flowers are not on spikes but each one comes directly from the leaf axils then you might be looking at slender speedwell, Veronica filiformis instead.

Distribution

Found throughout the UK, but rare on the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.

Habitat

Generally grows in grassy places like meadows, pastures, verges and lawns, as well as in woods, hedgerows and waste ground.

Best time to see

When in flower, from March to July.

Micro moth on a Germander Speedwell

Did you know?

Like other speedwells found in the wild, it was believed that Germander speedwell was good luck for travellers, and wearing it in your buttonhole would “speed you well” on your journey.

Other Species

Bluebell
Bluebell close-up.

Bluebell

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bugle
A close up of a blue bugle plant.

Bugle

Ajuga reptans

Cowslip
Cowslip Close Up.

Cowslip

Primula Veris

Greater Stitchwort

Stellaria holostea

A pretty white wildflower also known as ‘Star-of-Bethlehem’ and ‘Wedding Cakes’, this star shaped spring flower is often found in hedgerows and verges. One of its local names is ‘popguns’ as its seeds fire off noisily when ripe.

How to spot it

White flowers, 20-30mm across, with five petals divided half way and twice as long as the sepals. Leaves narrow, with rough edges, stalkless, in pairs, each pair at right angles to the next. It also has a square stem. (National Plant Monitoring Scheme Species ID Guide)

Where it grows

Hedgerows and deciduous woodland.

Best time to see

April to June.

How’s it doing?

Stable.

Close up of Greater Stitchwort

Did you know?

  • One of its local names is “popguns” as its seeds fire off noisily when ripe. It is also known as Poppers.
  • Other names (“Poor Man’s Buttonhole”, “Daddy’s Shirt Buttons”) suggest it was once used as a buttonhole.
  • Names such as Snapdragon and Snapcrackers refers to the ease with which the stalk breaks.
  • The name “Stitchwort” itself comes from the once-held belief it cured side-stitch caused by exercise.

Other Species

Bluebell
Bluebell close-up.

Bluebell

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bugle
A close up of a blue bugle plant.

Bugle

Ajuga reptans

Cowslip
Cowslip Close Up.

Cowslip

Primula Veris

Lords-and-Ladies

Arum maculatum

Lords and ladies plant.

Also often known as the ‘cuckoo pint’, a plant with shiny arrow shaped leaves often with dark spots.

The flower is designed to attract flies for pollination and club shaped spike releases a urine-like odour. Its fruit – a spike of bright orange berries – can be a common sight in woodlands in autumn. Like many wild berries these are toxic to humans so take care around them.

Where to find Lords-and-ladies

Lords-and-ladies are quite common throughout most of the UK.  Mostly in hedgerows and woodland areas. The exception is north and central Scotland.

Best time to see

It flowers in April and May, but is also a striking sight when its bright orange berries are in fruit in autumn.

Lord and ladies plant in a woodland area

Did you know?

The plant’s fascinating shape and form has inspired a wide variety of names.

These include:

  • Jack-in-the-pulpit
  • Soldier-in-a-sentry-box
  • Bloody man’s finger
  • the rather lengthy ‘Kitty-come-down-the-lane-jump-up-and-kiss-me’ (an old Kentish name).

Perhaps not surprisingly, many have rather bawdy associations.

Other Species

Bluebell
Bluebell close-up.

Bluebell

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Bugle
A close up of a blue bugle plant.

Bugle

Ajuga reptans

Cowslip
Cowslip Close Up.

Cowslip

Primula Veris