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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.
Dactylis glomerata
It’s one of the bigger lawn grasses which can grow over 1m. Its most distinguishing feature is its flattened lower stems which you can feel with your fingers as easily as you can see. Forming dense tussocks, it also has distinctive heavy-looking flower heads.
It’s found across the UK in all kinds of places but it’s most commonly found in meadows and roadsides. On lawns, it often grows on the lesser mown edges.
False oat grass – another tall, bulky grass which flowers slightly later.
Cock’s-foot grass is a surprisingly good plant for wildlife.
Sanguisorba officinalis
Great Burnet is a member of the rose family, although at first glance it does not appear very similar.
The rose family actually contains a large number of different plant species, including familiar members such as apples, pears, and raspberries.
Great Burnet has distinctive deep red flowers that sit on a tall, single stem. Each flower head is made of a tight cluster of individual flowers, which attract pollinating insects. The plant flowers in summer and early autumn. It can grow tall, up to a metre high. Its leaves are divided into oval leaflets.
Great Burnet grows in grasslands and damp environments. It can be found in wetlands, such as floodplains, and wet meadows. It is also available as a cultivated plant for gardens. Great Burnet is a perennial plant that can live for many years.
Great Burnet can be found throughout England and Wales, and some parts of Scotland. It is rare in Ireland. Many of the wetter environments that Great Burnet favours are threatened or declining habitats.
The practice of improving farmland pastures by fertilising, or sowing nitrogen-fixing plants, has caused the species to decline in these habitats.
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.
Centaurea cyanus
These bright blue flowers used to be classed as common arable weeds. Now they much scarcer.
Historically, the word ‘corn’ was used to mean grains such as wheat, barley, and oats. Cornflowers commonly grew amongst these arable crops, giving the plant its name.
The flowering plant is a distinctive bright blue colour. Cornflowers can grow to 90cm high, often rising above other plants. Their lower grey-green leaves are longer than their upper leaves.
There has been a dramatic decline in Cornflower numbers in the wild due to some modern agricultural practices.
Its populations began to recover in the late 1980s, particularly on unsprayed set-aside land and it is often included in wildflower replanting programmes.
Cornflower is found throughout the UK, though is rare in Scotland and Ireland.
It used to be classed as a common arable weed and could be found all over. However it is now seen a garden escape and more of a common sight in gardens that have been seeded with wildflowers.
In the wild, you will now find these flowers blooming in waste ground, scrub and road verges as well as some farmland.
Viola arvensis
Field Pansy is a delicate flower from the Violet family, and is the wild relative of the Garden Pansy. It’s a small low-growing perennial which can be easily confused with the Wild Pansy, however it has much smaller flowers. It is self-fertile and attracts butterflies such as the Queen of Spain Fritillary which will lay its eggs on the plant.
The flowers of Field Pansy are solitary and 15mm across. They have creamy yellow petals which are sometimes bluish-violet. Its sepals are pointed, and often longer than or the same length as the petals. Its stipules look like lobed leaves, and the leaves are oblong in shape. The plant grows up to 20cm tall.
While Field Pansy can be found throughout the UK, it is more common in the East half of the UK and SE Ireland. It’s most commonly found in dry arable field margins and waste spaces.
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 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.
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