British wildflowers

[johnralphcarpenter]

Could well be, Matt. L. sylvestris  was my best guess, but L. nissolia looks more likely. Any idea how rare/common it is?

[johnralphcarpenter]

More on L. nissolia. Neither of my wildflower field guides mentions it, but (my hero) Richard Mabey does in his Flora Britannica:  " Grass Vetchling, Lathyrus nissolia, is a great favourite with botanists, perhaps because of its unpredictable occurrence and the difficulty of finding it amongst the long grass that its foliage resembles. It is a medium-tall annual cropping up on old pastures, rough waysides and marshland edges. It has one or two brilliant crimson flowers on long stalks, so Geoffrey Grigson coined for it the name 'crimson shoe'".

[Matt T]

In The Wild Flower Key, Rose states:

Grass Vetchling L. nissolia, resembles a grass superficially when not in fl but lf-base does not enclose stem. Erect, hairless ann, 20-30 cm, with lvs composed of phyllodes (broad, grasslike midribs only) with no lflts; stipules tiny at base, tendrils abs[ent]. Fls bright crimson-red, 15 cm, erect, 1-2 together on long stalks; pod 30-50 x 2-3 mm, straight, hairless, pale brown when ripe. S Eng: Devon to Lincs o-vla [occasional - very locally abundant] especially near sea in SE; r [rare] scattered elsewhere; Ire abs; gsld, scrub on ± basic, heavy soils. Fl 5-7 [May-July]

This is actually my favourite native grassland plant. I've seen it in a cattle-grazed pasture on heavy clay soil overlying chalk close to the Thames Estuary in Essex.

[johnralphcarpenter]

I love it when plants just arrive in the garden of their own accord (well, most of them). This has appeared in a half barrel full of water loving iris. ID please!

ID suggested 18th June: Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Common spotted Orchid).

[jomowi]

Today at Flanders Moss near Thornhill, west of Stirling:
1. Erica tetralix - Cross leaved heath
2. Drosera rotundifolia - round leaved sundew
3 & 4 Vaccinium oxycoccus - Cranberry
5. Habitat

[Maggi Young]

Bulb Log 26 -2015  This week in nature -Scottish wildflowers  from the SRGC 2015  "Golspie Expedition "
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2015Jul011435747890BULB_LOG_2615comp.pdf
 
Video supplement to Bulb Log 26 - Primula scotica http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2015Jul011435747890BULB_LOG_2615comp.pdf

[Maggi Young]

Today at Flanders Moss near Thornhill, west of Stirling:
1. Erica tetralix - Cross leaved heath
2. Drosera rotundifolia - round leaved sundew
3 & 4 Vaccinium oxycoccus - Cranberry
5. Habitat

Oh my, that is definitely an area which I would call " boggy-boggy, sink-sink" - which was my childhood description of such wet, marshy areas.   My Mum  had told me at some point - keep out of there - it's a bog, you'll sink" - so  boggy-boggy, sink-sink such places became! 

[Anthony Darby]

I would be looking for large heath butterflies. 

[jomowi]

Anthony, I only saw a fleeting glimpse of one butterfly despite it being a hot sunny day.  Maggi, you needn't sink here, there is a circular board walk.  There was one section where you could go "off piste" as it were, with stepping stones and warnings not to go off them.  You felt much more in tune with the Moss on this, but yes, it also brought home the dangers of disregarding the warnings.
A few more pics:
1, 2 &3. Taken from the information boards.  The tall 5m. post in No 2 shows the height of the peat 200 years ago before it was removed to create farming land. In No. 4 the stripes are where former drainage channels have been filled in as part of the restoration of the Moss.
I have since discovered but not yet been to Blawhorn Moss, here in W. Lothian.  It is smaller than Flanders Moss, but has the largest area of original habitat of all the Mosses, i.e. not drained for "improvement" and turned into farming land.

[Matt T]

Patrick is doing a lot of field surveys this week and yesterday discovered this perfectly double form of Ranunculus acris.

[Chris Johnson]

The ungrazed parts of the machair are quite spectacular now. This was taken at the weekend on a visit to Berneray.

Main flowers visible:
Charlock (Sinapis arvensis)
Long-headed Poppy (Papaver dubium)
White Clover (Trifolium repens)
Sea Mayweed (Tripleurospermum maritimum)

[jomowi]

Lovely, Matt - the Machair is one of my favourite habitats.

I have just been sent a link to a couple of items on orchids from the BBC website which will interest Forumists:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33652194

www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-33607289

[ian mcdonald]

Anthony, there have been many large heath here. They are about over now though.

[Lewis Potter]

On Tiptree heath, I found this little one. Its Polygala serpyllifolia. It has colonized where the parish council has cut down all the Gorse Bushes.

[Tristan_He]

Some shots of an interesting form of Anthyllis vulneraria (kidney vetch) that grows on and near the dunes on Anglesey, N Wales. I collected some seed last year and here is the result. It has sort of buff-coloured flowers that develop this attractive reddish-pink flush.

Tristan