Wildflower diary
Summer 2024
Every year it's different! This year the foxgloves have been quite amazing, starting to flower in late May and still going strong in July, with multiple tall flower spikes on each plant covered in beautiful magenta flowers, plus quite a few plants with paler pink or even white flowers.
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In the UK they are mainly pollinated by bumble bees, which have long tongues able to reach down into the foxglove's reserves of nectar which are out of reach to other insects. But in other parts of the world they have evolved to suit the local pollinators: click here for a fascinating article about foxgloves in Costa Rica, where they were introduced about 200 years ago and they now have a longer nectar tube and are pollinated by hummingbirds!!
A bee's eye view of foxglove flowers
(Digitalis purpurea)
Another plant which has done particularly well this year is sheeps' sorrel. All over Blackheath there are drifts of this plant giving rusty-red splashes of colour along the sides of the sandy paths. The tiny flowers are reddish-pink and the stems are red-tinged too, and this year it's thicker and more prolific than usual: in Albury where hillsides last year were covered in the pink flowers of storksbill, this year they are rusty-red with sheep's sorrel instead.
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Try tasting the leaves if you see some that aren't too dusty-looking - they have a pleasant lemony flavour and can be used in a salad.​
A colourful lining along the paths on Blackheath: red sheep's sorrel in front (Rumex acetosella),
with yellow flowers of cat's ear behind (Hypochaeris radicata),
and straw-coloured sweet vernal grass at the back
(Anthoxanthum odoratum)
Sheep's sorrel close up. The lower photo shows the feathery female flowers
Hedgerow cranesbill
(Geranium pyrenaicum)
Pencilled cranesbill
(Geranium versicolor)
Two pretty cranesbills which we see every year are hedgerow cranesbill on Lords Hill Green and a very distinctive species, pencilled cranesbill, on Spring Cottage Green. The hedgerow cranesbill was particularly good this year until it was sadly mown, but it will come back and we may see more of its lovely purple-pink flowers later in the year. It can be confused with dove's foot cranesbill but that has smaller, pinker flowers and is a widespread annual weed, whereas this species is perennial and we find it every year around the posts by the bridleway leading up to Stonard's Brow.
Dove's foot cranesbill
(Geranium molle)
Stonards Brow posts surrounded by hedgerow cranesbill
It's interesting to see the effect of the June mowing on Duck Pond Green. Here you see the junction between the mown area on the left with few flowers at the moment, and the unmown area to the right where greater birds foot trefoil is flowering profusely - great for pollinators!
The mown area will be cut again in October along with the rest of the green, but by then other species will have had a chance to grow and flower, and we hope there will be a slightly different mix of species becoming established here in response to the different mowing regime.
Duck Pond Green.
The grass to the left has had an extra mow in June for the fete.
The vegetation to the right is only mown in October.
Teasels growing by the Duck Pond
(Dipsacus fullonum)
Wild garlic by the Duck Pond
(Allium ursinum)
Birds foot trefoil
(or 'eggs and bacon')
(Lotus corniculatus)
Greater birds foot trefoil
(Lotus pedunculatus)
grows in wetter ground and has hollow stems
The following photos are of germander speedwell , which smothered the ground with bright blue flowers in May and June, but now there are just hairy blobs at the tips of the stems of most plants. If you prise one of the blobs apart you will find the 1mm long yellowish larvae of a tiny insect, the gall midge Jaapiella veronicae. These cause abnormal growth so that the plant forms a protective case around them instead of developing normal leaves and flowers. Gall midges affect many species of speedwell, and few plants are left untouched once the female has started laying her eggs in them.
From this - a profusion of sky blue flowers on
germander speedwell
(Veronica chamaedrys)
- to this - now with weird hairy blobs at the stem tips
- because of these
- gall midge larvae!
(Jaapiella veronicae)
Fox and cubs
(Pilosella aurantiaca)
Heather
(Calluna vulgaris)
just starting to flower July 12th
Bristly ox-tongue (Helminthotheca echioides)
Some other things to look out for this summer:
Do have a look at the green by the village shop where there are lots of orange-red fox and cubs plants, many more than previous years, possibly because of the wet start to the year as it's a moisture-lover. This pretty plant is a perennial so we are hoping it will continue to thrive and we'll see even more of it in years to come.
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Bristly ox-tongue on Easteds Green, about half a metre in height, and a diminutive centaury in the wild patch opposite the Red Lion are both new additions to our list this year. Both are annuals, so we may or may not see them again next year.
And last but not least, do have a walk on Blackheath in the next few weeks - the bell heather has been out for a while, and now the common heather and our rare dwarf gorse have started flowering too. You might also spot curiosities like dodder, the strange pink parasite which affects heather, or the alien-looking common cudweed which has become abundant along the edge of some paths.
This year, encouragingly, the bees seem to have returned to the heath - they are certainly buzzing loudly at the moment in mid July!
Centaury
(Centaurium erythraea)
Dwarf Gorse
(Ulex minor)
scentless flowers appear in summer, unlike the larger and more robust common gorse which has coconut scented flowers in winter
Bell heather
(Erica cinerea)
on Blackheath
Dodder
(Cuscuta epithymum)
a parasite of heather which we saw here last year
