Ivydene Gardens Brown Wildflowers Note Gallery:
Botanical Plant Name with Common Name and Form: EU-FE 31

 

Topic -
Many types of plant in the following Flower/Foliage Colour Wheel Galleries with their number of colours appended as a high-level Plant Selection Process:-

All Flowers 53 with
...Use of Plant and
Flower Shape - page links below and in next row.
All Foliage 53
instead of redundant
...(All Foliage 212) .
All Flowers
per Month 12 .
Bee instead of wind pollinated plants for hay-fever sufferers
All Bee-Pollinated Flowers per Month 12
...Index .
Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
Rock Plant Flowers 53
Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M,
NO, PQ, R, S, T,
UVWXYZ
...Rock Plant Photos .
Flower Colour Wheel without photos, but with links to photos
12 Bloom Colours
per Month Index
...All Plants Index .

 

 


Topic -
Use of Plant in your Plant Selection Process. Plant Colour Wheel Uses
with
1. Perfect general use soil is composed of 8.3% lime, 16.6% humus, 25% clay and 50% sand, and
2. Why you are continually losing the SOIL STRUCTURE so your soil - will revert to clay, chalk, sand or silt.
Uses of Plant and Flower Shape:-
...Foliage Only
...Other than Green Foliage
...Trees in Lawn
...Trees in Small Gardens
...Wildflower Garden
...Attract Bird
...Attract Butterfly
1, 2
...Climber on House Wall
...Climber not on House Wall
...Climber in Tree
...Rabbit-Resistant
...Woodland
...Pollution Barrier
...Part Shade
...Full Shade
...Single Flower provides Pollen for Bees
1, 2, 3
...Ground-Cover
<60cm
60-180cm
>180cm
...Hedge
...Wind-swept
...Covering Banks
...Patio Pot
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border
...Poisonous
...Adjacent to Water
...Bog Garden
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Winter-Flowering
...Fragrant
...Not Fragrant
...Exhibition
...Standard Plant is 'Ball on Stick'
...Upright Branches or Sword-shaped leaves
...Plant to Prevent Entry to Human or Animal
...Coastal Conditions
...Tolerant on North-facing Wall
...Cut Flower
...Potted Veg Outdoors
...Potted Veg Indoors
...Thornless
...Raised Bed Outdoors Veg
...Grow in Alkaline Soil A-F, G-L, M-R,
S-Z
...Grow in Acidic Soil
...Grow in Any Soil
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Grow Bulbs Indoors

 

What is PL@NTNET?
Pl@ntNet allows you to identify thousands of species of plants thanks to your pictures. The images you send are automatically compared to the thousands of images we have in our botanical databases. A list of plants is then proposed. The last word is yours! Currently, Pl@ntNet has 22 projects: 16 geographical projects, 3 thematic projects on ornamental and cultivated plants, and 3 microprojects.
If you wanna know everything about how to use the app: https://plantnet.org/en/how-why/
Frequently Asked Questions provides answers:-
1. What is the project "World Flora"? - "The Plant List (TPL) was a working list of all known plant species produced by the botanical community in response to Target 1 of the 2002-2010 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). TPL has been static since 2013, but was used as the starting point for the Taxonomic Backbone of the World Flora Online (WFO), and updated information can be found at www.worldfloraonline.org."
2. Can I use Pl@ntNet on my computer? - "Yes! the Web version of Pl@ntNet is available at the following address: identify.plantnet.org. "

Plant Colour Wheel Uses
with
1. Perfect general use soil is composed of 8.3% lime, 16.6% humus, 25% clay and 50% sand, and
2. Why you are continually losing the SOIL STRUCTURE so your soil - will revert to clay, chalk, sand or silt.
Uses of Plant and Flower Shape:-
 

Uses of Bedding
...Bedding Out
...Filling In
...Screen-ing
...Pots and Troughs
...Window Boxes
...Hanging Baskets
...Spring Bedding
...Summer Bedding
...Winter Bedding
...Foliage instead of Flower
...Coleus Bedding Photos for use in Public Domain 1

 

Uses of Bulb
...Other than Only Green Foliage
...Bedding or Mass Planting
...Ground-Cover
...Cut-Flower
...Tolerant of Shade
...In Woodland Areas
...Under-plant
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Covering Banks
...In Water
...Beside Stream or Water Garden
...Coastal Conditions
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border or Back-ground Plant
...Fragrant Flowers
...Not Fragrant Flowers
...Indoor
House-plant
...Grow in a Patio Pot
...Grow in an Alpine Trough
...Grow in an Alpine House
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Speciman Plant
...Into Native Plant Garden
...Naturalize in Grass
...Grow in Hanging Basket
...Grow in Window-box
...Grow in Green-house
...Grow in Scree
...Naturalized Plant Area
...Grow in Cottage Garden
...Attracts Butterflies
...Attracts Bees
...Resistant to Wildlife
...Bulb in Soil:-
......Chalk
......Clay
......Sand
......Lime-Free (Acid)
......Peat
 

Uses of Rose
Rose Index
...Bedding 1, 2
...Climber /Pillar
...Cut-Flower 1, 2
...Exhibition, Speciman
...Ground-Cover
...Grow In A Container 1, 2
...Hedge 1, 2
...Climber in Tree
...Woodland
...Edging Borders
...Tolerant of Poor Soil 1, 2
...Tolerant of Shade
...Back of Border
...Adjacent to Water
...Page for rose use as ARCH ROSE, PERGOLA ROSE, COASTAL CONDITIONS ROSE, WALL ROSE, STANDARD ROSE, COVERING BANKS or THORNLESS ROSES.
...FRAGRANT ROSES
...NOT FRAGRANT ROSES

 

 

BROWN WILD FLOWER GALLERY
PAGE MENU
Site Map of pages with content (o)
and
The way the Botanical name is built up is based on Latin grammar rules.
Each plant family name (eg. 'Cordyline') is a noun and has a gender (i.e. is male or female).
Species within each family are adjectives ('australis', 'indivisa', etc.).
The descriptive clues in botanical names are rewarding if you translate or understand the terms themselves. Like
. macrantha having large flowers

Introduction
 

B & T World Seeds Paguignan, 34210 Aigues Vives, France can supply seeds world-wide from over 35,000 different plants.

John Chambers Wildflower Seed supplies native British produced wildflower seed from its John Chambers Wildflowers Brochure and its Green-tech Specifier Wildflowers Seeds with delivery to England, Scotland and Wales.

American Meadows Quick Guide to Wildflowers contains complete planting instructions, how much seed you need, and wildflower searches by color, height, moisture and light requirements with delivery of live plants, bulbs and seeds to USA only, but only its seeds to Canada.

"SEASONS AND MONTHS

SPRING
Early: March
Mid: April
Late: May

SUMMER
Early: June
Mid: July
Late: August

AUTUMN
Early: September
Mid: October
Late: November

WINTER
Early: December
Mid: January
Late: February

" from The Wildlife Garden Month-by-Month by Jackie Bennett. Published by David & Charles in 1993 (ISBN 0 7153 0033 4).

 

I am very grateful to both Ron and Christine Foord for taking 35mm slides using Kodachrome last century and getting their botanical names for each slide verified by the Natural History Museum. They left their collection of UK Native Plant slides and their butterfly collection to the Natural History Museum once both Ron and Christine had died.

Before Christine died I managed to digitise 100 slides a week of their UK Native plants, but she died before I could complete digitising that collection.

Many of those digitised UK native Plant slides have been used in the 180 UK Native Family pages.

Christine left me her slides of Garden Plants some of which I have included in Ron and Christine Foord - 1036 photos only inserted so far - Garden Flowers - Start Page of each Gallery
AB1 ,AN14,BA27,CH40,CR52,DR63,
FR74, GE85,HE96,

 

WILD FLOWER GALLERY
PAGE MENU
Site Map of pages with content (o)

Introduction

Poisonous Plants


INDEX LINK TO WILDFLOWER PLANT DESCRIPTION PAGE
a-h
i-p
q-z


FLOWER COLOUR
(o)Blue
(o)Brown
(o)Cream
(o)Green
(o)Mauve
(o)Multi-Coloured
Orange
(o)Pink 1
(o)Pink 2
(o)Purple
(o)Red
(o)White1
(o)White2
(o)White3
(o)Yelow1
(o)Yelow2
(o)Shrub or Small Tree

SEED COLOUR
(o)Seed 1
(o)Seed 2

BED PICTURES
(o)Bed

HABITAT TABLES
Flowers in
Acid Soil
Flowers in
Chalk Soil
Flowers in
Marine Soil
Flowers in
Neutral Soil
Ferns
Grasses
Rushes
Sedges
 

 

See Explanation of Structure of this Website with User Guidelines to aid your use of this website.

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 1


(o)Adder's Tongue
Amaranth
(o)Arrow-Grass
(o)Arum
(o)Balsam
Bamboo
(o)Barberry
(o)Bedstraw
(o)Beech
(o)Bellflower
(o)Bindweed
(o)Birch
(o)Birds-Nest
(o)Birthwort
(o)Bogbean
(o)Bog Myrtle
(o)Borage
(o)Box
(o)Broomrape
(o)Buckthorn
(o)Buddleia
(o)Bur-reed
(o)Buttercup
(o)Butterwort
(o)Cornel (Dogwood)
(o)Crowberry
(o)Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
(o)Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2
Cypress
(o)Daffodil
(o)Daisy
(o)Daisy Cudweeds
(o)Daisy Chamomiles
(o)Daisy Thistle
(o)Daisy Catsears (o)Daisy Hawkweeds
(o)Daisy Hawksbeards
(o)Daphne
(o)Diapensia
(o)Dock Bistorts
(o)Dock Sorrels

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 2


(o)Clubmoss
(o)Duckweed
(o)Eel-Grass
(o)Elm
(o)Filmy Fern
(o)Horsetail
(o)Polypody
Quillwort
(o)Royal Fern
(o)Figwort - Mulleins
(o)Figwort - Speedwells
(o)Flax
(o)Flowering-Rush
(o)Frog-bit
(o)Fumitory
(o)Gentian
(o)Geranium
(o)Glassworts
(o)Gooseberry
(o)Goosefoot
(o)Grass 1
(o)Grass 2
(o)Grass 3
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 1
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 2
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 3 (o)Hazel
(o)Heath
(o)Hemp
(o)Herb-Paris
(o)Holly
(o)Honeysuckle
(o)Horned-Pondweed
(o)Hornwort
(o)Iris
(o)Ivy
(o)Jacobs Ladder
(o)Lily
(o)Lily Garlic
(o)Lime
(o)Lobelia
(o)Loosestrife
(o)Mallow
(o)Maple
(o)Mares-tail
(o)Marsh Pennywort
(o)Melon (Gourd/Cucumber)
 

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 3


(o)Mesem-bryanthemum
(o)Mignonette
(o)Milkwort
(o)Mistletoe
(o)Moschatel
Naiad
(o)Nettle
(o)Nightshade
(o)Oleaster
(o)Olive
(o)Orchid 1
(o)Orchid 2
(o)Orchid 3
(o)Orchid 4
(o)Parnassus-Grass
(o)Peaflower
(o)Peaflower Clover 1
(o)Peaflower Clover 2
(o)Peaflower Clover 3
(o)Peaflower Vetches/Peas
Peony
(o)Periwinkle
Pillwort
Pine
(o)Pink 1
(o)Pink 2
Pipewort
(o)Pitcher-Plant
(o)Plantain
(o)Pondweed
(o)Poppy
(o)Primrose
(o)Purslane
Rannock Rush
(o)Reedmace
(o)Rockrose
(o)Rose 1
(o)Rose 2
(o)Rose 3
(o)Rose 4
(o)Rush
(o)Rush Woodrushes
(o)Saint Johns Wort
Saltmarsh Grasses
(o)Sandalwood
(o)Saxifrage
 

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 4


Seaheath
(o)Sea Lavender
(o)Sedge Rush-like
(o)Sedges Carex 1
(o)Sedges Carex 2
(o)Sedges Carex 3
(o)Sedges Carex 4
(o)Spindle-Tree
(o)Spurge
(o)Stonecrop
(o)Sundew
(o)Tamarisk
Tassel Pondweed
(o)Teasel
(o)Thyme 1
(o)Thyme 2
(o)Umbellifer 1
(o)Umbellifer 2
(o)Valerian
(o)Verbena
(o)Violet
(o)Water Fern
(o)Waterlily
(o)Water Milfoil
(o)Water Plantain
(o)Water Starwort
Waterwort
(o)Willow
(o)Willow-Herb
(o)Wintergreen
(o)Wood-Sorrel
(o)Yam
(o)Yew

Site design and content copyright ©January 2016.
New Common Names and
Botanical Names added February 2021.
Wildflower 17 Flower Colour per month Wheel added in November 2023.
Chris Garnons-Williams.

DISCLAIMER: Links to external sites are provided as a courtesy to visitors. Ivydene Horticultural Services are not responsible for the content and/or quality of external web sites linked from this site.

 

The wild flowers in this book (Wild Flowers of Britain by Sarah Garland). Published in 1978 by ARTUS Publishing Company Limited for Marks and Spencer Ltd) have been grouped under chapter headings according to where they grow. Each plant is seen against its natural background and the influences that shape it: the weather, rich and poor soils, animals and man:-

  • The history of British Flowers
  • Chalk and limestone flowers
  • Arable and wasteground flowers
  • Flowers of the woods and hedgerows
  • Grassland and roadside flowers
  • Freshwater flowers
  • Fen and marshland flowers
  • Heath, moor and bogland flowers
  • Mountain flowers
  • Flowers of the sea coast


John Chambers' Wild Flower Seeds - "John Chambers Wildflower Seed has a 35 year history of supplying native British produced wildflower seed and mixes to landscape and garden lovers across the UK. John Chambers is one of the leading authorities on native wildflower seed, distributing a comprehensive range of products that protect, enhance and improve the landscape environment. See Case Studies."
and
plant from British Wild Flower Plants - "We are the largest grower of British native plants in the UK and have been in operation since 1986, including Biodiversity Enhancement, Green Roofs and Reed Beds."

 

 

 

The English Flower Garden Design, Arrangement, and Plans followed by A description of all the best plants for it and their culture and the positions fitted for them By W. Robinson Author of the "Wild Garden". Fourth Edition. Published by John Murray in London in 1895 is a useful source of culture and positions for them, as is
The Gardener' Golden Treasury incorporating Sanders Encyclopedia of Gardening. Revised by A.G.L. Hellyer and published in 1960 by W.H. & L. Collingridge Limited.

 

 

 

 


WILDFLOWER INDEX

See Wildflower Common Name Index link Table ON A PAGE for more wildflower of the UK common names - from Adder's Tongue to the Goosefoot Family - together with their names in languages from America, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
See Wildflower Botanical Name Index link table ON A PAGE for wildflower of the United Kingdom (Great Britain) botanical names, from Adder's Tongue to the Goosefoot Family.
Neither of the above 2 pages will be further updated, due to 1. Running out of space on each of the pages and 2. being replaced by the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries from July 2020:-
Botanical Names with Common Name, Wild Flower Family, Flower Colour and Form Index of each of all the Wildflowers of the UK in 1965 are in PAGES IN THE GALLERY Brown Wildflower Gallery with page links in the top row.
Common Names with Botanical Name, Wild Flower Family, Flower Colour and Form Index of each of all the Wildflowers of the UK in 1965 are PAGES IN THE GALLERY in Cream Wildflower Gallery with page links in the top row.
Plant description, culture, propagation and photos/illustrations will be provided for every wildflower plant (from February 2021) in these 2 galleries.
After clicking on the WILD FLOWER Common Name INDEX link to Wildflower Family Page; locate that Common name on that Wildflower Family Page, then
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Common Name to view that Plant Description Page
Botanical Name to link to Plant or Seed Supplier
Flowering Months to view photos
Habitat to view further Natural Habitat details and Botanical Society of the British Isles Distribution Map
 

Ivydene Horticultural Services logo with I design, construct and maintain private gardens. I also advise and teach you in your own garden. 01634 389677

Wild Flowers as They Grow- Photographed by H. Essenhigh Corke, text by G. Clark Nuttall. Published by Cassell and Company, Ltd in 7 separate books between 1911 and 1914 contains information about UK Native Wildflowers with 1 per chapter. I have summarised some of these chapters and put those into this website, but most will simply have a reference to which book it is in for you to read it yourself.

Common Name
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Common Name to view that Plant Description Page
Underlined Common Name in black is linked to its description in its Common Name row only.

Flower Photo
to show Number of Flower Petals and either Simple or Elaborated Flower Shape --->

Botanical Name
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Botanical Name to link to Plant or Seed Supplier
 

Flowering Months
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Flowering Months to view photos
 

Flowers Photo
to show Natural Arrangements of how the flowers are arranged
--->

 

Sections from edition 2 of the Plant Crib, with some updated sections from the planned edition 3, are kindly made available by Plant Crib co-editor Dr Tim Rich of Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland:-
"Plant Crib on Juncus by the BSBI is:-
A useful account of identification of the British and Irish species, including many useful illustrations, is given by
T. A. Cope (1990) A guide to British rushes and woodrushes. In: A guide to some difficult plants. Pp 68-89. Wild Flower Society, London."

Height x Spread in inches (cms)
(1 inch = 2.5 cms,
12 inches = 1 foot = 30 cms,
24 inches = 2 feet,
3 feet = 1 yard,
40 inches = 100 cms
The above conversions from inches to centimetres are not accurate, but make it easier for me)

WildFlower Family Page
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Wildflower Family Page to view remainder of other Wildflowers in this Family within Great Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Foliage Photo
to show the shape of each leaf and the arrangement of the leaves on the foliage stem

Flower Colour
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Flower Colour to view other wildflowers with the same flower colour.

Habitat
Click on Underlined Text in:-
Habitat to view further Natural Habitat details and Botanical Society of the British Isles Distribution Map.

Native in:-
1. Western Europe = Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Great Britain, Belgium and Holland.
2. Northern Europe = Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
3. Central Europe = Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
4. Mediterranean Europe = Spain, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Turkey.
5. South-East Europe = Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, and
6. Soviet Union completes the Regions of Europe; plus the distribution of this flora in the USA and Canada.

Form Photo
to show the overall form of the plant --->

Form from
The Concise British Flora in Colour by W. Keble Martin, MA, FLS.
Designed and produced by George Rainbird Limited and Second Impression (with revisions) June 1965.

Number of Flower Petals

lessershape1meadowrue1

cosmoscflobipinnatuspuritygarnonswilliams1

irishcflobladderwort1

ajugacflo1genevensisfoord2a1

aethionemacfloarmenumfoord1

anemonecflo1hybridafoord1

anemonecflo1blandafoord1

Petal-less

1

2

3

4

5

Above 5

Flower Shape - Simple

 

These in this Table are for Wild-flowers

anthericumcfloliliagofoord1

argemonecflomexicanaflowermissouriplants1

geraniumcinereumballerinaflot9a

paeoniamlokosewitschiiflot1

magnoliagrandifloracflogarnonswilliams1

acantholinumcflop99glumaceumfoord

stachysflotmacrantha1

Stars

Bowls

Cups and Saucers

Globes

Goblets and Chalices

Trumpets

Funnels

campanulacochlearifoliapusillacflofoord1

clematiscflodiversifoliagarnonswilliams1

Ericacarneaspringwoodwhitecflogarnonswilliams1

phloxflotsubulatatemiskaming1

 

 

 

Bells

Thimbles

Urns

Salver-form

 

 

 

Flower Shape - Elab--orated

prunellaflotgrandiflora1

aquilegiacfloformosafoord1

lilliumcflomartagonrvroger1

laburnumcflowaterivossiistandardpage1

brachyscomecflorigidulakevock1

scabiosacflo1columbariawikimediacommons1

melancholycflothistle1

Tubes, Lips and Straps

Slippers, Spurs and Lockets

Hats, Hoods and Helmets

Stan-dards, Wings and Keels

Discs and Florets

Pin-Cushions

Tufts

androsacecforyargongensiskevock1

androsacecflorigidakevock1

argyranthemumfloc1madeiracrestedyellow1

agapanthuscflosafricanusbluekevock1

 

 

 

Cushion

Umbel

Buttons

Pompoms

 

 

 

Natural Arrange--ments

bergeniamorningredcforcoblands1

ajugacfloreptansatropurpurea1a

morinacfloslongifoliapershape1

eremuruscflo1bungeipershapefoord1

amaranthuscflos1caudatuswikimediacommons1

clematiscformontanaontrellisfoord1

androsacecfor1albanakevock1

Bunches, Posies and Sprays

Columns, Spikes and Spires

Whorls, Tiers and Candle-labra

Plumes and Tails

Chains and Tassels

Clouds, Garlands and Cascades

Spheres, Domes and Plates

Form for Wildflowers:-

Mat-forming
Prostrate
Mound-forming
Spreading
Clump-forming
Stemless
Upright
Climbing
Arching

These Forms are used for Bulbs with Herbaceous and Evergreen Perennials.

 

Shape for Evergreen Shrubs:-

Columnar
Oval
Rounded
Flattened Spherical
Narrow Conical
Broad Conical
Egg-shaped
Broad Ovoid
Narrow Vase-shape
Fan-shaped
Broad Fan-shape
Narrow Weeping
Broad Weeping
Single-stem Palm
Multi-stem Palm

These Forms and Shapes are also used for Deciduous and Evergreen Shrubs and Trees.
Wildflowers from Shrub/Tree page will be inserted into these Shapes for Evergreen Shrubs pages.

Eyebright
(Large-flowered Sticky Eyebright,
Common Eyebright,
Chalk Hill Eyebright,
Common Slender Eyebright,
Dwarf Welsh Eyebright,
Greater Eyebright,
Hairy-leaved Eyebright,
Little Kneeling Eyebright,
Mountain Sticky Eyebright,
Narrow-leaved Eyebright,
Short-haired Eyebright,
Slender Scottish Eyebright,
Small-flowered Sticky Eyebright,
Snowden Eyebright)

eyebrightfflo

Flower

eyebrightfflos

Flowers

These 4 small photos were taken by Ron or Christine Foord last century

Euphrasia officinalis (Euphrasia rostkoviana) and the following 24 microspecies:-

June onwards

 

Figwort - Speedwells Family

 

 

 

eyebrightffol

Foliage

 

A group of small, hemiparasitic annuals on the roots of diverse herbs and small shrubs, mainly found in permanent or semi-permanent grasslands.

 

eyebrightffor

Form

Euphrasia rostkoviana is native and widespread in Europe, except in Northern Europe.

eyebright1euphrasiaofficinaliscorke

Photo of Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis) in Wild Flowers as They Grow- Photographed by H. Essenhigh Corke, text by G. Clark Nuttall. Published by Cassell and Company, Ltd, Fourth Series, in 1912.

Suckers from its roots spread around and lie on the rootlets of the grass plants which share the soil with it. Where they are in contact, tiny nodules form and send absorption cells into the grass rootlets, but they only make slight demands upon their host.
The Eyebright is an annual, renewing itself by seed from year to year, and the suckers of the grass roots to which it is attached also wither in those autumn days. It is bee pollinated.
The plant is named after Euphrosyne, one of the three Graces, who was distinguished for her joy and mirth.

 

See other photos of
Euphrasia rostoviana
from freenatureimages.eu of the Saxifraga Foundation.

 

Gallery of Photos/Illustrations, Common Name and Synonym of
Euphrasia officinalis with
its distribution in USA and Canada from
Flora of USA and Canada.

Buckwheat
(Common Buckwheat)

Fagopyrum esculentum
(Polygonum fagopyrum,
Fagopyrum sagittatum)

July-September

buckwheatfflo

Flower

buckwheatfflos

Flowers

 

Dock Bistorts Family

 

 

buckwheatffol

Foliage

These 4 small photos were taken by Ron or Christine Foord last century

Pink A-G

An annual appearing erratically on waste ground, rubbish tips, field margins and in woodland rides. It rarely persists long at any one site. Lowland.

 

buckwheatffor

Form

Native in Asia; widely cultivated and often self-seeding in much of Europe.

buckwheatfagopyrumesculentumpolunin

Photo from Flowers of Europe A Field Guide by Oleg Polunin. Published by Oxford University Press in 1969.

 

See other photos of
Fagopyrum esculentum
from freenatureimages.eu of the Saxifraga Foundation

 

Gallery of Photos/Illustrations, Common Name and Synonym of
Fagopyrum esculentum with
its distribution in USA and Canada from
Flora of USA and Canada.

Beech
(European Beech,
Balkan Beech)

is Edible,

 

 

 

 

 

 

beechfflomale

Male Flower

Fagus sylvatica

April-May, with the leaves

 

 

 

 

 

beechfflofemale

Female Flower

These 4 small photos were taken by Ron or Christine Foord last century

 

Beech Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

beechffoljuv

Juvenile Foliage

 

This is a large tree found on a wide variety of base-rich to acidic, free-draining soils. It grows in pure woodlands or as standard trees or pollards in wood pasture. It is widely planted outside its native range as woodland, in avenues and as hedges.

beechffor

Form

Native in all Europe (except in Portugal, Iceland, Finland and Turkey): introduced into Ireland.
The wood is fine-grained and used fo many purposes such as furniture, flooring, turnery, etc. The nuts or 'mast' are edible and oil for cooking and light is obtained from them.

 

See other photos of
Fagus sylvatica
from freenatureimages.eu of the Saxifraga Foundation.

 

Gallery of Photos/Illustrations, Common Name and Synonym of
Fagus sylvatica with
its distribution in USA and Canada from
Flora of USA and Canada.

 

The soft, hoary texture of lichen-covered branches is a beautiful foil for silky preserved leaves of beech (Fagus sylvatica) or the leathery finished rich brown which glycerine and water gives to laurel (Laurus nobilis) foliage. You can make beautiful and long-lasting arrangements by mixing these with branches of Larch (European Larch - Larix decidua) cones and individual larger cones, used like flowers, or with conkers mounted on false stems and clusters of acorns (Oak Tree - Quercus robur, Turkey Oak - Quercus cerris and Durmast Oak - Quercus petraea) in their cups. See further details from page on Flower Arrangements from Wild Flowers.

The important thing is not to leave it too late to gather the branches, otherwise the leaves will fall while they are in the preserving solution. As a matter of fact you can begin preserving beech as early as late July, and the earlier you gather and preserve the leaves the deeper the colour becomes. Green beech gathered in summer ends up the colour of dull copper beech. Preserved much later it becomes a golden tan.
It is important to realize that comes a point, just before the fall, when the leaves stop taking up water from the stems. This s why when you have gathered some attractive branches you later find that even though they have stood in water, or perhaps a preserving fluid, they have simply curled. You cannot really gather them too soon once the summer is over, but you can certainly and easily gather them too late. During late August-September the rain water or irrigation applied to trees/shrubs once the leaves have stopped taking up water from the stems is stored in the roots; to provide the water for the spring foliage.
If you want autumn-tinted foliage after preservation, do as I do and watch the trees. Often you will find one branch changes colour long before the rest of the tree. This is the moment to gather branches from that particular tree.
Branches or stems which are to be preserved have first to be conditioned. Split the stem ends and stand them in warm or hot water. Let them stay all night. Not only will this start the process of water flowing up through the stems, but it will give you the opportunity of learning if there are any branches which are too advanced to take water, and these can be discarded before you spend time and preserving fluid on them.
 

For the solution use one-third glycerine and two-thirds boiling water. I used to boil the tow together, but someone pointed out to me that this could be quite dangerous, and I mention it now in case some young reader might be tempted to take the easy route to mixing the 2 liquids.
Stems need to be stood in about 2 inches (5 cms) of this solution, so obviously a slim container looks to be the most economical, but the drawback to this is that it will easily tilt over because of the weight or the height and width of the material it holds. For this reason I use tall tins to hold the solution and stand these inside empty buckets or other larger vessels, these being high enough and wide enough to support the branches whichever way they may care to lean.
Mix the 2 liquids together well and quickly; and pour the solution into the containers over the ends of the stems so that they get the full impact while it is still hot.
After a few days you will be able to trace the progress of the glycerine through the veins of the leaves, which will become solkier and oilier in appearance. When it is obvious that the solution extends over the whole of the surface of the leaves remove the branches from the solution. If they are left in too long a sticky mess begins to exude from the leaf surfaces.
Once you have removed the branches they can be arranged out of water right away. If you wish to keep them for use at some later date pack them away, one carefully laid on another in boxes, or hung up stems downwards in polythene bags.
You can arrange them in water with fresh materials if you wish. Often you will find that after being placed in water the stem ends rot, and if you want to avoid this; slip them into narrow plastic bags deep enough to cover the portion which will go under water. Alternatively, cover the stem ends with cooking foil. On the other hand the ends can quite easily be cut away if they do show signs of mould.

Incidentally I have discovered a good way of keeping green ferns, such as the male fern, Dryopteris filix-mas, looking fresh and green for many weeks. The fronds must be mature, so glance on the underside and see that the brown spores are frmed. Condition the fronds thoroughly and then stand them in the gycerine mixture for at least 48 hours. After this they can be arranged in plain water. If you want good green ferns after pressing, first give them this treatment and then press.

See further details about dried and preserved materials from chapter 5 of Flower Arrangements from Wild Flowers by Violet Stevenson.

Longleaf
(Sickleweed,
Long-leaf)

Falcaria vulgaris
(Falcaria sioides)

July-August

 

Umbellifer 1 Family

 

This rhizomatous perennial herb has been recorded from a wide variety of habitats, including pasture, arable fields, roadsides, cliff-top grassland, scrub, chalk quarries, gravel-pits, railway ballast, river banks and waste ground. Viable seed is produced in Britain only in warm summers, and large colonies probably result from rhizomatous growth. Lowland.

Native in much of Europe (except in Northern Europe, Portugal, Ireland and Albania): introduced into Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden.

 

See other photos of
Falcaria vulgaris
from freenatureimages.eu of the Saxifraga Foundation.

ONLINE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 
THE UMBELLIFERAE
(CARROT/PARSLEY)
FAMILY OF THE BRITISH ISLES
Edition - Interactive Launched 01:08:2002
43 species described. By Mr James Miles Burton.
A comprehensive online guide to the botany, biology, nomenclature, ecology,
chemistry, pharmacology, edibility folklore of British Umbelliferae.
Umbelliferae Of The British Isles, 2nd edition, 2000. 1st edition 1998.
Also, Interactive Guide to Artemisia, Wild in the British Isles.

 

Gallery of Photos/Illustrations, Common Name and Synonym of
Falcaria vulgaris with
its distribution in USA and Canada from
Flora of USA and Canada.

Tall Fescue
(Meadow Fescue,
Rohr-Schwingelgras,
Reed Fescue)

Festuca arundinacea
(Schedonorus arundinacea,
Festuca elatior,
Festuca fenas,
Festuca uechtritziana,
Lolium arundinaceum,
Schedonorus arundinaceus)

June-August

 

Grass 3 Family

 

A robust perennial of scrub and woodland margins, hedgerows, pastures and meadows, river gravel, roadsides, railway banks and waste ground, on neutral or basic soils. It is also found along the banks of tidal rivers in places liable to inundation by brackish or sea water, and on slumping sea-cliffs.

A native plant that is widespread in Europe.

 

See other photos of
Festuca arundinacea
from freenatureimages.eu of the Saxifraga Foundation.

 

Gallery of Photos/Illustrations, Common Name and Synonym of
Festuca arundinacea with
its distribution in USA and Canada from
Flora of USA and Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UKButterflies Larval Foodplants website page lists the larval foodplants used by British butterflies. The name of each foodplant links to a Google search. An indication of whether the foodplant is a primary or secondary food source is also given.

Please note that the Butterfly you see for only a short time has grown up on plants as an egg, caterpillar and chrysalis for up to 11 months, before becoming a butterfly. If the plants that they live on during that time are removed, or sprayed with herbicide, then you will not see the butterfly.
 

Topic - Wildlife on Plant Photo Gallery.

Some UK native butterflies eat material from UK Native Wildflowers and live on them as eggs, caterpillars (Large Skipper eats False Brome grass - Brachypodium sylvaticum - for 11 months from July to May as a Caterpillar before becoming a Chrysalis within 3 weeks in May) chrysalis or butterflies ALL YEAR ROUND.
Please leave a small area in your garden for wildflowers to grow without disturbance throughout the year for the benefit of butterflies, moths and other wildlife who are dependant on them.
Butterfly
Usage of Plants
by Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly

Topic -
Plant Photo Galleries for Wildflowers

There are 180 families in the Wildflowers of the UK and they have been split up into 22 Galleries to allow space for up to 100 plants per gallery.

Each plant named in each of the Wildflower Family Pages may have a link to:-

  • its Plant Description Page in its Common Name in one of those Wildflower Plant Galleries and will have links
  • to external sites to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name,
  • to see photos in its Flowering Months and
  • to read habitat details in its Habitat Column.

you know which family it belongs to, use
WILD FLOWER FAMILY PAGE MENU
(o)Adder's Tongue
Amaranth
the remainder of this Family list is in the extreme left hand table.
 

 

 

You know its Botanical Name, use
...Brown Botanical Names (see complete botanical name alphabetical link list in the previous table)

You know its Common Name, use
...Cream Common Names (see complete common name alphabetical link list in the previous table)
or use the
Colour Wheel Gallery .

If you know its name, use
Wild Flower Plant Index a-h,
Wild Flower Plant Index i-p or
Wild Flower Plant Index q-z

 

 

Which wild flowers are there, with their flower shape and wildflower plant, use

Wild Flower
...Flower Shape and Landscape Uses
 




Each of the 17 Flower Colour Comparison Pages compares the wildflowers with that flower colour in the top section using the thumbnails of the ones that I have. This is followed by a list of all the Wildflowers of the UK that have that same flower colour. Then, in the right hand table is the list of Wildflowers of the UK with that habitat as shown below:-

White A-D
and
Habitats of Saltmarshes, Beaches, Rocks and Cliff Tops

White E-P
and
Other Habitats

White Q-Z
and
Number of Petals
Cream
and
Coastal Sandy Shores and Dunes
Yellow A-G
and
Pollinator

Yellow H-Z
and
Poisonous Plants
Orange
and
Habitat of Hedgerows and Road Verges
Red
and
Habitat of Pinewoods
Pink A-G
and
Habitats of Lakes, Canals and Rivers

Pink H-Z
and
Habitats of Marshes, Fens and Bogs
Mauve
and
Habitat of Grassland - Acid, Neutral or Chalk
Purple
and
Habitats of Old Buildings and Walls
Blue
and
Flower Legend
Green
and
Habitat of Broad-leaved Woods
Brown
and
Food for Butterfly / Moth
Multi-Coloured
and
Habitats of Heaths and Moors
Shrub and Small Tree
and
Habitats of River Banks and Other Freshwater Margins

Seed 1
and
Scented Flower, Foliage or Root

Seed 2
and
Story of Their Common Names

Non-Flower Plants and
Non-Flowering Plant Use

Introduction
and
Edible Plant Parts

Site Map
and
Use of Plant
The links for the above are at the top of the previous table.
 
 
 
 

You know which habitat it lives in,
use
Wild Flowers on
Acid Soil Habitat Table,
on Calcareous
(Chalk) Soil,
on Marine Soil,
on Neutral Soil,
is a Fern,
is a Grass,
is a Rush, or
is a Sedge

Wild Flower Family Page

The families within "The Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers" by David McClintock & R.S.R. Fitter, Published in 1956 are not in Common Name alphabetical order and neither are the common names of the plants detailed within each family. These families within that book will have their details described as shown in each row of the Botanical Names Gallery and the Common Name Gallery starting from page 1 in February 2017 until all the families have been completed on page 307 in June 2022.

The information in the above book is back-referenced to the respective page in "Flora of the British Isles" by A.R. Clapham of University of Sheffield,
T.G. Tutin of University College, Leicester and
E.F. Warburg of University of Oxford printed by Cambridge at the University Press in 1952 for each plant in all the families.

 

The following article about flash-flooding caused by concreting over front gardens by Janice Turner in her Notebook was published by The Times on Thursday July 1 2021:-

"Walking down a pretty street I'd always admired for its front gardens with wooden gates and well-tended flower beds, I noticed men at work laying concrete slabs. With a power point being installed too, it was clear the garden was being paved to charge an electric car.
In London, with an ultra low emission zone extended to the suburbs from October, many people are busy switching vehicles. With fears that even hybrids will soon be verboten, most have bought electric. But this creates a problem: running cables from house o pavement is an illegal trip hazard and, as yet, not enough lamposts have been adapted into charging stations.
So how many front gardens will be concreted over to create private power sources? A 2015 study by the Royal Horticultural Society noted that 1 in 4 front gardens had been paved, mainly to avoid parking fees. The result was more flash-flooding, higher urban temperatures and less biodiversity and opportunity for birds to feed. Plus it makes neighbourhoods ugly and monochrome. Now more gardens will be dug up, this time because the owners aspire to be green."

"Mon, 27 Nov 06
Britain is now building the smallest homes in Europe, it seems. A recent think-tank report shows most of Europe builds houses of an average 100 sq m, while here in the UK fresh data from Wolsey Securities shows the national average plot size decreased a further 0.2% last month to 968 sq ft. (89.9 sq m.)" from Home.co.uk.
A new house is approximately 31 x 31 feet, which would fit into my front garden.

"The length of a compact car is about 14.5 to 15 feet and measures about 5.5 to almost 6 feet wide." from reference.
Allowing 2 feet around the car for access, then the drive becomes 19 feet x 10 feet (570 x 300 cms). 2 inches (5cm) of rain falling onto this 5.70 x 3.00 concrete drive is 0.855 cubic metres of water. Modern contractors only dig a 1 cubic metre sump for this 2 inch (5cm) depth of rainwater per occasion over their new drives. If the drive is larger, then the sump will fill up and overflow onto the public road. If the subsoil is clay, then no matter it's size, it will become full of rainwater and new rain will overfill it. The only way it will reduce the stored water is for it to be absorbed into the clay. Clay can absorb 40% of its volume before it turns from a solid to a liquid. So what happens is the clay expands and the house gets subsidence. Then, the excess rainwater goes into the storm drains and that is what causes the flash-flooding mentioned in The Times article. Remember that the rainwater falling on the roof also goes into this stormdrain.
"Many storm drainage systems drain untreated storm water into rivers or streams." from wikipedia.

The rainwater that used to fall on that plot and soak into the ground, now mostly goes into a storm drain, then a river and then the sea, so we lose that rainwater for it to be used as a supply of water to the household. So, the more you cover the ground with concrete motorways, roads, houses, and other buildings the less water will be going into reservoirs to be used for humans as shown by my Drinking Water depri-vation in Medway article.

Raw Sewage is discharged into rivers (more than 200,00 times in 2019) and the sea (2,900 occasions onto English and Welsh beaches in a year) across the UK and Ireland. The Environment Agency published full data on raw sewage discharges last year, showing a 37% year-on-year increase: 3.1m hours of human effluent flows, pumped via storm drains into English waters in some 400,000 occasions.
Because you do not keep your own rainwater on your own property, then it either overflows your soakaway and goes into the road and down a storm drain or the water is directed into your downpipe from your roof and then into the same stormdrain. This then overloads the system. Also, if you keep on building, but do not provide the necessary upgrade to the sewage system, then that causes the same problem. You should not go anywhere near the beach or any river in Great Britain.

"The oxygen you breathe to keep you alive has mostly been produced by plants. A 25 feet x 25 feet lawn can produce enough oxygen for you to keep breathing each year.
A car driven 60 miles will consume the same amount of oxygen that a mature beech tree produces in 1 year, creating more Carbon Dioxide. Increasing Carbon Dioxide increases the heat in the atmosphere and creates Climate Change. The increase in temperature will raise sea level to drown many acres of coastal areas around the world within the next 30 years, including my house.

Green Solution: Use Cedadrive Stabilisation system instead of concrete slabs for drive area. Fill it with Heicom Tree Sand, water it, sow wildflower meadow mixture Barflora Flower Meadow and retop with same sand. Then in the autumn, mow it once and have something that provides you with oxygen as well as hard standing for your car.
This Cedadrive could occupy the whole of your front garden and thus keep all the rainwater that falls on it as well.
If you put the same system on your back garden, then maintenance time is minimal, small children and pets can play on it, and you can have table/chairs and barbecue being supported by it.

Plants used by the Butterflies follow the Plants used by the Egg, Caterpillar and Chrysalis as stated in
A Butterfly Book for the Pocket by Edmund Sandars.
Published by Oxford University Press London: Humphrey Milford in 1939.

and

The Butterflies of Britain & Ireland New Revised Edition by Jeremy Thomas & Richard Lewington.
Published by Bloomsbury Natural Hstory in 2016. ISBN 978 0 95649 026 1.
 

Plant Name

Butterfly Name

Egg/ Caterpillar/ Chrysalis/ Butterfly

Plant Usage

Plant Usage Months

Alder Buckthorn

Brimstone

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg under leaf.

Eats leaves.
---

10 days in May-June
28 days.
12 days.

Aspen

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May
9 days in June.

Black Medic

Common Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats buds and flowers.


Base of food plant.

-
-
Spend winter at the base of the food plant. They resume feeding in March.
2 weeks

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil

Chalk-Hill Blue

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg at base of plant.
Eats leaves.
---

Late August-April
April-June
1 Month

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil

Common Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats buds and flowers.


Base of food plant.

-
-
Spend winter at the base of the food plant. They resume feeding in March.
2 weeks

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil

Wood White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg laid on underside of leaflets or bracts.
Eats leaves.
---

7 days in June.

32 days in June-July.
July-May.

Bitter Vetch

Wood White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg laid on underside of leaflets or bracts.
Eats leaves.
---

7 days in June.

32 days in June-July.
July-May.

Borage

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg laid under the leaf or on top of the flower.
Eats leaves, then before pupating it eats the bloom and leaves of the pansies.
---

7 days in August.

23 days in August-September.

3 weeks in September

Bramble

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Buckthorn

Holly Blue

Egg,


Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---


 

7 days.


28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Buckthorn -
Alder Buckthorn and Common Buckthorn

Brimstone

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg under leaf.

Eats leaves.
---

10 days in May-June.

28 days.
12 days.

Burdocks

Painted Lady

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

2 weeks
7-11days
7-11 days

Cabbages - ELarge White eats all cruciferous plants, such as cabbages, mustard, turnips, radishes, cresses, nasturtiums, wild mignonette and dyer's weed

Large White
 

Egg,


Caterpillar
Chrysalis

40-100 eggs on both surfaces of leaf.

Eats leaves.
---
 

May-June and August-Early September. 4.5-17 days.
30-32 days
14 days for May-June eggs, or overwinter till April

Cabbages

Small White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on underside of leaf.

Eats leaves.
---
 

May-June and August. 7 days.
28 days
21 days for May-June eggs, or overwinter till March

Cabbages:-
Charlock,
Cuckoo Flower (Lady's Smock),
Hedge-Mustard,
Garlic-Mustard,
Yellow Rocket (Common Winter-Cress),
Watercress

Green-veined White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis


 

1 egg on underside of leaf.

Eats leaves.
---


 

July or August; hatches in 3 days.
16 days.
14 days in July or for caterpillars of August, they overwinter till May.

Cabbages:-
Charlock,
Creeping Yellow-cress,
Cuckoo Flower (Lady's Smock),
Dame's Violet,
Hedge-Mustard,
Horseradish,
Garlic-Mustard,
Lady's Smock,
Large Bittercress,
Rock-cress (Common Winter-Cress),
Yellow Rocket (Common Winter-Cress),
Watercress,
Wild Turnip

Orange Tip

Egg,

Caterpillar

Chrysalis

1 egg laid in the tight buds and flowers.
Eats leaves, buds, flowers and especially the seed pods.
---

May-June 7 days.

June-July 24 days.

August-May

Cherry with
Wild Cherry,
Morello Cherry and
Bird Cherry

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

Clovers 1, 2, 3

Common Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats buds and flowers.


Base of food plant.

-
-
Spend winter at the base of the food plant. They resume feeding in March.
2 weeks.

Clovers 1, 2, 3

Pale Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.

 

10 days in May-June.
July-August.
17 days in August-September.

Clovers 1, 2, 3

Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
 

6 days in May-June.
30 days.
18 days in July-August.

Cocksfoot is a grass

Large Skipper

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg under leaf.
Eats leaves.
---


11 Months
3 weeks from May

Cow-wheat

(Common CowWheat, Field CowWheat)

Heath Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until end of August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats young leaves until June.
---

Hatches after 16 days in June.
June-April



25 days in June.

Currants
(Red Currant,
Black Currant and Gooseberry)

Comma

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

 

Devilsbit Scabious

Marsh Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until late August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 20 days in July.
July-May.



15 days in May.

Dog Violet with
Common Dog Violet,
Heath Dog Violet and
Wood Dog Violet

Silver-washed Fritillary

Egg,
Caterpillar



Chrysalis

1 egg on oak or pine tree trunk
Hibernates in a crevice in the bark of the tree trunk.
Moves out of tree to eat Dog Violet leaves.
On rock or twig.

15 days in July.
August-March.

March-May.

Late June-July

Dog Violet with
Common Dog Violet,
Heath Dog Violet and
Wood Dog Violet

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf or stem.

Feeds on leaves until July. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats young leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 15 days in May-June.
July-May.



9 days in June.

Dog Violet with
Common Dog Violet,
Heath Dog Violet and
Wood Dog Violet

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf or stem.

Feeds on leaves until July. Hibernates in dead leaves until March. Eats young leaves until April.
---

Hatches after 10 days in May-June.
June-April



April-June.

Dogwood

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Elm and Wych Elm

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

False Brome is a grass (Wood Brome, Wood False-brome and Slender False-brome)

Large Skipper

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg under leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

...
11 Months
3 weeks from May

Foxglove

Marsh Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until late August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 20 days in July.
July-May



15 days in May.

Fyfield Pea

Wood White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg laid on underside of leaflets or bracts.
Eats leaves.
---

7 days in June.

32 days in June-July.
July-May.

Garden Pansy

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf or stem.
Feeds on leaves until July. Hibernates in dead leaves until March. Eats young leaves until April.
---

Hatches after 10 days in May-June.
June-April


April-June.

Gorse

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Heartsease

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg laid under the leaf or on top of the flower.
Eats leaves, then before pupating it eats the bloom and leaves of the pansies.
---

7 days in August.

23 days in August-September.

3 weeks in September

Hogs's Fennel

Swallowtail

Egg,


Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf. 5 or 6 eggs may be deposited by separate females on one leaf.
Eats leaves, and moves to stems of sedges or other fen plants before pupating.
---

14 days in July-August.


August-September.


September-May.

Holly

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Honesty (Lunaria biennis)

Orange Tip

Egg,

Caterpillar

Chrysalis

1 egg laid in the tight buds and flowers.
Eats leaves, buds, flowers and especially the seed pods.
---

May-June 7 days.

June-July 24 days.

August-May

Honeysuckle

Marsh Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until late August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 20 days in July.
July-May.



15 days in May.

Hop

Comma

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

 

Horseshoe vetch

Adonis Blue




Chalk-Hill Blue


Berger's Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar

Chrysalis

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Egg,


Caterpillar

Chrysalis

1 egg under leaf.
Eats leaves.

---

1 egg at base of plant.
Eats leaves.
---

1 egg on leaf.


Eats leaves.

---

1 then
June-March or September to July
3 weeks.

Late August-April.
April-June
1 Month

8-10 days in Late May-June or Middle August-September
June-July or September to October
8-15 days

Ivy

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Kidney Vetch

Chalk-Hill Blue

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis
Butterfly

1 egg at base of plant.
Eats leaves.
---
Eats nectar.

Late August-April.
April-June
1 Month
20 days

Lucerne

Pale Clouded Yellow



Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis


Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.



1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

10 days in May-June.
July-August.
17 days in August-September.

6 days in May-June.
30 days.
18 days in July-August.

Mallows

Painted Lady

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

2 weeks
7-11days
7-11 days

Melilot

Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
 

6 days in May-June.
30 days.
18 days in July-August.

Mignonettes

Small White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on underside of leaf.

Eats leaves.
---
 

May-June and August. 7 days.
28 days
21 days for May-June eggs, or overwinter till March

Milk Parsley

Swallowtail

Egg,


Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf. 5 or 6 eggs may be deposited by separate females on one leaf.
Eats leaves, and moves to stems of sedges or other fen plants before pupating.
---

14 days in July-August.


August-September


September-May

Narrow-leaved Plantain (Ribwort Plantain)

Heath Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until end of August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats young leaves until June.
---

Hatches after 16 days in June.
June-April.



25 days in June.

Narrow-leaved Plantain (Ribwort Plantain)

Glanville Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until middle of August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until April-May.
---

Hatches after 16 days in June.
June-April.



25 days in April-May.

Nasturtium from Gardens

Small White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on underside of leaf.

Eats leaves.
---
 

May-June and August. 7 days.
28 days.
21 days for May-June eggs, or overwinter till March

Oak Tree

Silver-washed Fritillary

Egg,
Caterpillar



Chrysalis

1 egg on tree trunk
Hibernates in a crevice in the bark of the tree trunk.
Moves out of tree to eat Dog Violet leaves.
On rock or twig.

15 days in July.
August-March.

March-May.

Late June-July

Mountain pansy,
Seaside Pansy,
Field Pansy and Cultivated Pansy.
 

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar

 

Chrysalis

1 egg laid under the leaf or on top of the flower.
Eats leaves of borage, sainfoin and heartsease, then before pupating it eats the bloom and leaves of the pansies.
---

7 days in August.

23 days in August-September
 

3 weeks in September

Pine Tree

Silver-washed Fritillary

Egg,
Caterpillar



Chrysalis

1 egg on tree trunk.
Hibernates in a crevice in the bark of the tree trunk.
Moves out of tree to eat Dog Violet leaves.
On rock or twig.

15 days in July.
August-March.

March-May.

Late June-July

Plantains

Marsh Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until late August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 20 days in July.
July-May



15 days in May.

Poplar

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

Restharrow

Common Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats buds and flowers.


Base of food plant.

-
-
Spend winter at the base of the food plant. They resume feeding in March.
2 weeks

Rock-rose

Brown Argus

Egg,
Caterpillar

1 egg under leaf.
Eats leaves.

 

Sainfoin

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg laid under the leaf or on top of the flower.
Eats leaves, then before pupating it eats the bloom and leaves of the pansies.
---

7 days in August.

23 days in August-September

3 weeks in September

Common Sallow (Willows, Osiers)

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

Sea Plantain

Glanville Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until middle of August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until April-May.
---

Hatches after 16 days in June.
June-April



25 days in April-May.

Snowberry

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---
 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Spindle-tree

Holly Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

 

1 egg on underside of a flower bud on its stalk.
Eats flower bud.
---

 

7 days.

28-42 days.
18 days. Early September to Late April for second generation.

Stinging Nettle

Comma




Painted Lady



Peacock

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Egg
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Egg,


Caterpillar

Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

Dense mass of 450-500 eggs on the under side of leaves over a 2 hour period.
Eats leaves, and moves to another plant before pupating.
---






2 weeks in June.
7-11 days.
7-11 days.

14 days in April-May.


28 days.

13days.

Storksbill

Brown Argus

Egg,
Caterpillar

1 egg under leaf.
Eats leaves.

 

Thistles

Painted Lady

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

2 weeks
7-11days
7-11 days

Trefoils 1, 2, 3

Clouded Yellow

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
 

6 days in May-June.
30 days.
18 days in July-August.

Vetches

Common Blue

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

Groups of eggs on upper side of leaf.
Eats buds and flowers.


Base of food plant.

-
-
Spend winter at the base of the food plant. They resume feeding in March.
2 weeks

Vetches

Wood White

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg laid on underside of leaflets or bracts.
Eats leaves.
---

7 days in June.

32 days in June-July.
July-May.

Violets:-
Common Dog Violet,
Hairy Violet,
Heath Dog-violet
Pale Dog violet
Sweet Violet

Dark Green Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg on underside of leaf or on stalk.
Hibernates where it hatches.
Eats leaves.

Base of food plant.

July-August for 17 days.

Spends winter on plant until end of March. Eats leaves until end of May.
4 weeks.

Violets:-
Common Dog Violet,
Hairy Violet,
Heath Dog-violet
Pale Dog violet
Sweet Violet

High Brown Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar

Chrysalis

1 egg on stem or stalk near plant base.
Feed on young leaves, stalks and stems
---

July to hatch in 8 months in March.
9 weeks ending in May.

4 weeks

Vipers Bugloss

Painted Lady

Egg,
Caterpillar
Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf.
Eats leaves.
---

2 weeks.
7-11days.
7-11 days

Whitebeam
(White Beam)

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

Wild Angelica

Swallowtail

Egg,


Caterpillar


Chrysalis

1 egg on leaf. 5 or 6 eggs may be deposited by separate females on one leaf.
Eats leaves, and moves to stems of sedges or other fen plants before pupating.
---

14 days in July-August.


August-September.


September-May

Willow
(Bay Willow)

Large Tortoiseshell

Egg,

Caterpillar
Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches encircling the branch of the food plant.
Feeds on leaves.
Hangs suspended from stem.

Hatches after 18-22 days in April.
30 days in May.
9 days in June.

Wood-Sage

Marsh Fritillary

Egg,

Caterpillar



Chrysalis

Eggs laid in batches on the under side of the leaves.
Feeds on leaves until late August. Hibernates on dead leaves until March. Eats leaves until May.
---

Hatches after 20 days in July.
July-May.



15 days in May.

 

Plants used by the Butterflies

Plant Name

Butterfly Name

Egg/ Caterpillar/ Chrysalis/ Butterfly

Plant Usage

Plant Usage Months

Asters
in gardens

Comma

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

 

Runner and Broad Beans in fields and gardens

Large White


Small White

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-June or July-September.

March-May or June-September

Aubretia in gardens

Clouded Yellow

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November

Birch

Holly Blue

Butterfly

Eats sap exuding from trunk.

April-Mid June and Mid July-Early September for second generation.

Common Birdsfoot Trefoil

Chalk-Hill Blue

Wood White

Marsh Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

20 days.


May-June.

30 days in May-June.

Bitter Vetch

Wood White

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June

Bluebell

Holly Blue




Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-Mid June and Mid July-Early September for second generation.


June.



June-August.

Bramble

Comma

Silver-washed Fritillary

High Brown Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October.

7 weeks in July-August.



June-August

Buddleias
in gardens

Comma

Peacock

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October.

July-May

Bugle

Wood White

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June.

June.



June-August.



June-July.

Cabbage and cabbages in fields

Large White


Small White


Green-veined White

Orange Tip

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-June or July-September.

March-May or June-September.

A Month during May-June or second flight in late July-August.

May-June for 18 days.

Charlock

Painted Lady

Butterfly

Eats nectar

July-October

Clovers 1, 2, 3

Adonis Blue



Chalk-Hill Blue

Painted Lady

Peacock

Large White


Small White

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

1 Month during Mid-May to Mid-June or during August-September

20 days in August.


July-October.

July-May.

April-June or July-September.

March-May or June-September

Clovers 1, 2, 3

Pale Clouded Yellow


Clouded Yellow


Berger's Clouded Yellow


Queen of Spain Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

1 Month in May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

May-September.

Cow-wheat
(Common CowWheat, Field CowWheat)

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June-July

Cuckoo Flower (Lady's Smock)

Wood White

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June

Dandelion

Holly Blue



Marsh Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-Mid June and Mid July-Early September for second generation.

30 days in May-June.

Fleabanes

Common Blue

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

3 weeks between May and September

Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys - Birdseye Speedwell)

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June-July

Greater Knapweed

Comma

Peacock

Clouded Yellow


Brimstone

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October.

July-May.

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

12 months

Hawkbit

Marsh Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

30 days in May-June.

Heartsease

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-September

Hedge Parsley

Orange Tip

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

May-June for 18 days.

Hemp agrimony

Comma

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October

Horseshoe vetch

Adonis Blue

Chalk-Hill Blue

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

1 Month.

20 days

Ivy

Painted Lady

Brimstone

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

Hibernates during winter months in its foliage.

July-October.

October-July

Lucerne

Painted Lady

Large White


Small White


Pale Clouded Yellow


Clouded Yellow


Berger's Clouded Yellow

Butterfly

Eats nectar

July-October.

April-June or July-September.

March-May or June-September

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

1 Month in May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November

Marigolds in gardens

Clouded Yellow

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November

Marjoram

Adonis Blue



Chalk-Hill Blue

Common Blue

Clouded Yellow

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

1 Month during Mid-May to Mid-June or during August-September.

20 days in August.


3 weeks in May-September.

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November

Michaelmas Daisies
in gardens

Comma

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October

Mignonettes

Large White


Small White

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-June or July-September.

March-May or June-September

Narrow-leaved Plantain (Ribwort Plantain)

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June-July

Nasturtiums in gardens

Large White


Small White

Butterfly

Eats nectar

April-June or July-September

March-May or June-September

Oak Tree

Holly Blue

Butterfly

Eats sap exuding from trunk.

April-Mid June and Mid July-Early September for second generation.

Primroses

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June.



June-August.

Ragged Robin

Wood White

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

May-June.

June-July.

Scabious

Painted Lady

Peacock

Butterfly

Eats nectar

July-October.

July-May

Sedum

Peacock

Butterfly

Eats nectar

July-May

Teasels

Silver-washed Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

7 weeks in July-August.

Thistles -
Creeping Thistle, Dwarf Thistle, Marsh Thistle, Meadow Thistle, Melancholy Thistle, Milk Thistle,
Musk Thistle, Seaside Thistle, Scotch Thistle, Spear Thistle, Tuberous Thistle, Welted Thistle, Woolly Thistle

Comma

Painted Lady

Peacock

Swallowtail

Clouded Yellow


Brimstone

Silver-washed Fritillary

High Brown Fritillary

Dark Green Fritillary

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

July-October.

July-October.

July-May.

May-July.

May-June or August till killed by frost and damp in September-November.

12 months.

7 weeks in July-August



June-August.


July-August for 6 weeks.


May-September.



June-August.

Thymes

Common Blue

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

3 weeks between May and September

Trefoils 1, 2, 3

Adonis Blue



Chalk-Hill Blue

Glanville Fritillary

Butterfly

 

Eats nectar.
 

1 Month during Mid-May to Mid-June or during August-September

20 days in August.


June-July

Vetches

Chalk-Hill Blue

Glanville Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar.

20 days in August.


June-July.

Violets

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June.



June-August.

Wood-Sage

Heath Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats nectar

June-July

Apple/Pear/Cherry/Plum Fruit Tree Blossom in Spring

Peacock

Butterfly

Eats Nectar

April-May

Rotten Fruit

Peacock

Butterfly

Drinks juice

July-September

Tree sap and damaged ripe fruit, which are high in sugar

Large Tortoiseshell

Butterfly

Hibernates inside hollow trees or outhouses until March. Eats sap or fruit juice until April.

10 months in June-April

Wild Flowers

Large Skipper

Brimstone

Silver-washed Fritillary.

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Butterfly

Eats Nectar

June-August


12 months.

7 weeks in July-August.



May-September

Links to the other Butterflies:-

Black Hairstreak uses Blackthorn, Privet, Guelder Rose, and Wayfaring tree
Brown Hairstreak uses Blackthorn, Bramble flowers and tops of Ash trees for males to congregate in
Camberwell Beauty It is not believed that it breeds in the UK, but butterflies swarm over from European Countries depending on the weather.
Chequered Skipper uses False Brome, Hairy Brome Grass, Bugle

I have detailed the use of plants by these eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and butterfly in full with either photos of those butterflies, etc or illustrations from Sandars. It shows that they do use plants all year round and I will insert the information of their Life Histories into the remainder of the Butterfly Description Pages but I will put no further information in this table or the Butterfly Name with its use of plants table. Please see what a council did to destroy the native habitat, so that children could ride bicyles anywhere in the park in the row below.
Dingy Skipper
Duke of Burgundy
Essex Skipper
Gatekeeper
Grayling
Green Hairstreak
Grizzled Skipper
Hedge Brown
Large Blue
Large Heath
Long-tailed Blue
Lulworth Skipper
Marbled White
Mazarine Blue
Meadow Brown
Monarch
Northern Brown Argus
Purple Emperor
Purple Hairstreak
Red Admiral
Ringlet
Scotch Argus
Short-tailed Blue
Silver-spotted Skipper
Silver-studded Blue
Small Copper
Small Heath
Small Mountain Ringlet
Small Skipper
Small Tortoiseshell
Speckled Wood
Wall Brown
White Admiral
White-letter Hairstreak

Details of what plant is used by each of the different 'egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or butterfly' unit and for how long is given in the table on the left.

At least 2 of these butterflies live in America as well as in the UK in 2022:-
Carterocephalus palaemon (Chequered Skipper) - Arctic Skippering - a butterfly of America.
Papilio machaon machaon (Swallowtail) - Old World Swallowtail - a butterfly of America.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A FLAILED CORNISH HEDGE
This details that life and death from July 1972 to 2019, with the following result for
UK wildflowers, birds, butterflies and moths:-

  • "Of the original 186 flowering species (including sub-species), the 5 colour forms and the 8 unconfirmed species, (193 flowering species in total) only 55 have persisted throughout the 35 years of flailing since 1972. Of these 55 species:-
  • 3 species are unchanged.
    11 species have disastrously increased.
    41 species are seriously reduced in number, most by over 90%. Of these, 18 are now increasing under the somewhat lighter flailing regime. 13 are still decreasing, and 35 have only a few specimens (from 1-12 plants) left.
  • Of the rest of the original species:-
  • 37 species and 3 colour forms have disappeared, then reappeared after varying lengths of time. Of these, 20 have fewer than 6 plants, most of them only 1 or 2, and are liable to disappear again. Only 6 of the recovered species look capable of surviving in the longer term.
  • 23 species have reappeared, then disappeared again due to being flailed before they could set seed or to being overcome by rank weeds.
  • Only 3 species have reappeared for a second time, and one of these has since disappeared for the third time.
    68 species and 2 colour forms disappeared and have never reappeared to date (2008).
  • Of the 83 flowering species (excluding 11 rampant species) and 3 colour forms now present in the survey mile, around 50 are unlikely to survive there in the long term, certainly not in viable numbers, if flailing continues.
    Unless the degradation of habitat, high fertility and spread of ivy and other rampant weeds can be reversed, it appears highly unlikely that more than a dozen or so of the lost floral species can ever safely return or be re-introduced.
  • The only birds sighted more than once so far this year along the mile have been magpie, rook, crow and buzzard, and a swallow (probably the same one each time) hunting between the hedges now and then at the sheltered eastern end of the mile. One wren heard June 21st, one blackbird seen June 27th (these also at the eastern end) and one greenfinch today July 31st. On this hot sunny high-summer day counted only 7 hedge brown butterflies (6 of them males), one red admiral and one large white. Half a dozen small bumblebees, two carder bees, half a dozen hoverflies of two common Eristalis species, one flesh fly, one scorpion fly and one dragonfly, Cordulegaster boltonii, not hunting, zooming straight down the road and disappearing into the distance.
  • Only 8 butterfly species so far this year, and only one specimen each of five of them (red admiral, speckled wood, large white, ringlet and large skipper, the latter seen only once since 1976). Only small white, hedge brown and speckled wood have managed to appear every year since the flail arrived.
    For some years I have been noticing very small specimens particularly of hedge brown and speckled wood. This year nearly all the hedge browns seen in the mile ('all' being a dozen or so in total) are of this stunted size, some of the males appearing really tiny. I am wondering if this might be a response to general environmental stress, or due to inbreeding as flail-reduced numbers are so low. The hedge brown does not fly far from its hatching place so mating opportunity is now extremely limited. With the few species of insects now seen in the hedges there seems to be a high proportion of males to females, at least five to one.
  • So far this year only a single moth has come to the house lights. It was a Drinker, and it killed itself against the bulb before it could be saved.

September 21st. Most of the survey mile closely flailed today along both sides of the road.

End note, June 2008. I hear spring vetch has been officially recorded somewhere in West Cornwall and confirmed as a presence in the county, so perhaps I can be permitted to have seen it pre-1972 in the survey mile. I wonder where they found it? It's gone from hedges where it used to be, along with other scarcities and so-called scarcities that used to flourish in so many hedges unrecorded, before the flail arrived. I have given careful thought to including mention of some of the plants and butterflies. So little seems to be known of the species resident in Cornish hedges pre-flail that I realise some references may invite scepticism. I am a sceptic myself, so sympathise with the reaction; but I have concluded that, with a view to re-establishing vulnerable species, it needs to be known that they can with the right management safely and perpetually thrive in ordinary Cornish hedges. In future this knowledge could solve the increasingly difficult question of sufficient and suitable sites for sustainable wild flower and butterfly conservation - as long as it is a future in which the hedge-flail does not figure.
Times and attitudes have changed since the days when the flail first appeared on the scene. The plight of our once-so-diverse wildlife is officially recognised as a priority; agricultural grants may embrace conservation measures, and perhaps economic strictures will tend more to a live-and-let-live policy in future with less of the expensive, pointless and desecrating "tidying-up". We now have an enthusiastic generation keen to help nature recover its diversity, but often unsure as to how this is best achieved. [Please see CHL "Restoring Biodiversity in Cornish Hedges"] 21st September 2007.
There is still widespread ignorance of the effects of such destructive machinery as the flail-mower and other rotary trimmers and strimmers. Few people but the elderly now remember or understand the life that ought to be abundant in the everyday hedges, verges, field margins and waste places. The simple remedy of returning to the clean-cutting finger-bar scythe used in late winter, trimming alternate sides of the hedge in different years, not trimming green herbaceous growth and leaving the cut material (mainly dead stems and twigs) on or near the hedge, is largely unrealised. This wildlife-friendly type of trimmer is still available from some suppliers.
Cornwall County Council has changed from being (in this instance) the chief offender to employing said-to-be environmentally-aware officers concerned with reconciling conservation and development. In recent years the council has issued instructional leaflets about hedges and their wildlife, including one entitled Cornish Roadside Hedge Management (since altered, perhaps not entirely for the better). This leaflet largely embodied the principles that our petition of 1985 asked for. Ironically, it is no longer the council's employees who are carrying out the work. Although this advice is now available, it does not necessarily reach the farmers and contractors out on the job. The flails are still in destructive action at any time from June onwards, though on the whole the work does seem to be being done later rather than sooner. Some farmers are now correctly leaving it until January and early February, a good time to allot to road work while other farm jobs may have to wait for drier weather. Most farmers, despite the bad publicity they tend to suffer, truly wish to do the best they can for their wildlife. Sadly for all, the flail is still the universally-available tool.
Those ignorant of the flail's real effects may imagine that 'sensitive' use of it is all right, as some common plant and insect species return temporarily and a few others increase when the work is switched to the less damaging time of year and done lightly. In the longer term, this is delusive; even in winter an unacceptable number of individuals are killed at every flailing and the habitat still inexorably degrades. No matter how or when or how seldom the flail is used, species continue to die out.
Until naturalists and environmentalists understand the catastrophic and cumulative effects of the flail they will continue to say they don't know why, despite all well-intentioned efforts, the numbers and diversity of wild flowers, songbirds, bats, butterflies, moths and bumblebees are still falling.
Nature lovers have to stop thinking mainly in terms of schemes to benefit a handful of charismatic species at special sites, and start looking at what the flail and other rotary mowers have done to thousands upon thousands of acres of the British countryside and billions upon billions of its most essential, ordinary inhabitants. It has struck at the major heart of the core existence of our native species, slaughtering them wholesale in that very sanctuary of the hedges and verges. These species had already mostly gone from the rest of the local area; the hedges where they had all taken refuge were their last resort. The remnants of species and their precarious survivors are still being wiped out, smashed to death every time the flail is used. It is the utterly wrong tool for the job and it has to be scrapped.
A brand-new flail-mower operating in February 2008. Right time of year for trimming, wrong kind of trimmer. As long as it is manufactured and turned out into the roads and fields the flail will decimate wild flowers, massacre the small creatures remaining in the hedges and verges, destroy their habitat and ruin the ancient structure of Cornwall's hedges.
Since the last yellowhammer flew across the road in 1980, I have never seen another while walking the survey mile. Since the last grasshopper in July 1981, I have never seen or heard another in these hedges. Since all the other species this diary recorded absent disappeared, they have not been seen again except in the few instances stated in the text. Most of the remaining species are declining. Fewer than half of them are likely to survive in the longer term if present trends continue. The long-vanished flowering species are likely never to return, as repeated flailing before seeding has exhausted their dormant seed stocks. The survey mile is typically representative of a majority of Cornish roadside hedges.
The photographs - in the pdf in their website - illustrating many of the flowering species lost were not taken in the survey hedge,for the obvious reason that they were no longer there. Most were taken in the house's wild garden adjoining, while those that did not grow there were obtained only with extreme difficulty, by searching all over West Penwith in a roughly thirty-mile radius for un-flailed pockets of survival. Along the roadside hedges, in this whole distance I found just one or two plants or patches of only a few of the species sought - common toadflax, field scabious, tufted vetch, scentless mayweed, red clover, self-heal - species that before the flail were so commonly seen along the whole length of hundreds of hedges in West Cornwall, now growing only where for some unusual reason of situation the flail had missed.
Some of the photographs of invertebrate species killed out by the flail in the survey mile were taken in the garden adjoining, where, despite nurturing since pre-flail days, the majority have now disappeared due to over-predation. In the survey mile this year, for the first time since 1992, the hedges remained un-flailed throughout the summer, giving a few common invertebrates the chance to reappear. No adult moth is illustrated because only half a dozen individuals were seen during the whole summer season of 2007, unfortunately at moments when the camera was not in my hand or they were fluttering out of reach. The drinker caterpillar alone was found posing beautifully and goes down to posterity as the only visible surviving moth larva noted in the survey mile this year, illustrating the millions of his kind killed by the flail.
Along this one typical mile of Cornish lane alone my records show that the flail has been the outright death or caused the persisting non-appearance of

  • 90 flowering herbaceous species,
  • 5 shrub species,
  • 20 grass species,
  • 60 moss species,
  • 40 bird species,
  • 23 butterfly species,
  • 250 larger moth species,
  • many scores of other invertebrate species, and untold thousands of individuals.
  • It has condemned the hedge itself to a long-term, silent, living death, wrecked its antique stone construction and destroyed its great beauty. Along the whole of the estimated 30,000 miles of Cornish hedges the deaths of individual plants and creatures from flail-battering and the loss of their generations represent truly astronomical figures. The degradation of habitat resulting from flailing prevents revival in most species even where a few individuals manage to escape the physical impact of the flails. Although the effect in Cornwall with its solid hedge-banks and their more complex ecology may be worse than with the English hedgerow, the flail-induced wildlife crisis is nation-wide - and still almost universally unrecognised or unacknowledged.
  • There is no hope of recovery for our countryside wildlife until the flail type of machine is consigned to the black museum of history. To achieve this it will probably have to be banned by law.
  • The finger-bar scythe has to be reinstated and any trimming (except where needed for road-junction or access visibility) must be carried out in winter, the later the better between November 1st and February 28th. Trimming must take away the woody scrub growth on the sides of the hedge, leaving the herbaceous growth on the sides and the bushes on the top untouched. Only then can the flail-ruined hedges and verges begin to see a real return to some kind of healthy and abundant life."

 

CHECK-LIST OF TYPES OF CORNISH HEDGE FLORA by Sarah Carter of Cornish Hedges Library:-
"This check-list is a simple guide to the herbaceous plants typically indicating different habitat types found in the Cornish hedge. The short lists are of typical plants, not complete species lists for the habitat. Many of the plants in the Typical Hedge list also appear in the other types of hedge. Areas of intermediate population where location or physical conditions begin to change and habitats overlap are not included.
Hedge Type:-

  • Typical Cornish Hedge (woodland-edge/ heathland mixture)
  • Coastal Hedge
  • Moorland/ Heathland Hedges
  • Woodland Hedge
  • Wet Hedge (marsh or ditch)
  • Stone Hedge (Earth capping but with stone core)
  • Typical garden escapes in Cornish Hedges
  • Typical species rampant in flail-damaged hedges

Titles of papers available on www.cornishhedges.co.uk:-

  • Advice for Working on Roadside Hedges
  • Building Hedges in Cornwall
  • Building Turf Hedges
  • Building and Repairing Cornish Stone Stiles
  • Butterflies, Moths and Other Insects in Cornish Hedges
  • Check-list for Inspecting New or Restored Hedges in Cornwall
  • Check-list of Types of Cornish Hedge Flora
  • Code of Good Practice for Cornish Hedges
  • Comments on the © Defra Hedgerow Survey Handbook (1st Edition)
  • Comments on the © Defra Hedgerow Survey Handbook (2nd Edition)
  • Cornish Hedges in Gardens
  • Cornish Hedges on Development and Housing Sites
  • Gates and Gateways in Cornish hedges
  • Geology and Hedges in Cornwall
  • Glossary of some Cornish Words used in the Countryside
  • Hedges in the Cornish Landscape
  • How to Look After a Cornish Hedge
  • How Old is That Cornish Hedge?
  • Literature Sources
  • Mediaeval Hedges in Cornwall (450AD - 1550)
  • Modern Hedges in Cornwall (1840 - present day)
  • Mosses, Lichens, Fungi and Ferns in Cornish Hedges
  • Pipe-laying and Other Cross-country Works Involving Hedges
  • Post-Mediaeval Hedges in Cornwall (1550 - 1840)
  • Prehistoric Hedges in Cornwall (5,000BC - 450AD)
  • Repairing Cornish Hedges and Stone Hedges
  • Repairing Turf Hedges
  • Risk Assessment Guidance for working on Cornish Hedges
  • Roadside Hedges and Verges in Cornwall
  • The Curse of Rabbits in Cornish Hedges
  • The Life and Death of a Flailed Cornish Hedge
  • Trees on Hedges in Cornwall
  • Unusual Old Features in Cornish Hedges
  • Who Owns that Cornish Hedge?
  • Wildlife and the Cornish Hedge

THE GUILD OF CORNISH HEDGERS is the non-profit-making organisation founded in 2002 to support the concern among traditional hedgers about poor standards of workmanship in Cornish hedging today. The Guild has raised public awareness of Cornwall's unique heritage of hedges and promoted free access to the Cornish Hedges Library, the only existing source of full and reliable written knowledge on Cornish hedges."
 

Topic
Plants detailed in this website by
Botanical Name
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V, W, X, Y, Z ,
Bulb
A1, 2, 3, B, C1, 2,
 D, E, F, G, Glad,
H, I, J, K, L1, 2,
 M, N, O, P, Q, R,
 S, T, U, V, W, XYZ ,
Evergreen Perennial
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V, W, X, Y, Z ,
Herbaceous Perennial
A1, 2, B, C, D, E, F,
G, H, I, J, K, L, M,
N, O, P1, 2, Q, R,
S, T, U, V, W, XYZ,
Diascia Photo Album,
UK Peony Index
Wildflower
Botanical Names,
Common Names ,
will be compared in:- Flower colour/month
Evergreen Perennial,
Flower shape Wildflower Flower Shape and
Plant use
Evergreen Perennial Flower Shape,
Bee plants for hay-fever sufferers
Bee-Pollinated Index
Butterfly
Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis, Butterfly Usage of Plants.
Chalk
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, QR, S, T, UV,
WXYZ
Companion Planting
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R , S, T,
U ,V, W, X, Y, Z,
Pest Control using Plants
Fern Fern
1000 Ground Cover A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V, W, XYZ ,
Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M,
NO, PQ, R, S, T,
UVWXYZ
Rose Rose Use
These 5 have Page links in rows below
Bulbs from the Infill Galleries (next row), Camera Photos,
Plant Colour Wheel Uses,
Sense of Fragrance, Wild Flower

Case Studies
...Drive Foundations
Ryegrass and turf kills plants within Roadstone and in Topsoil due to it starving and dehydrating them.
CEDAdrive creates stable drive surface and drains rain into your ground, rather than onto the public road.
8 problems caused by building house on clay or with house-wall attached to clay.
Pre-building work on polluted soil.

Companion Planting
to provide a Companion Plant to aid your selected plant or deter its pests

Garden
Construction
with ground drains

Garden Design
...How to Use the Colour Wheel Concepts for Selection of Flowers, Foliage and Flower Shape
...RHS Mixed
Borders
......Bedding Plants
......Her Perennials
......Other Plants
......Camera photos of Plant supports
Garden
Maintenance
Glossary with a tomato teaching cauliflowers
Home
Library of over 1000 books
Offbeat Glossary with DuLally Bird in its flower clock.

Plants
...in Chalk
(Alkaline) Soil
......A-F1, A-F2,
......A-F3, G-L, M-R,
......M-R Roses, S-Z
...in Heavy
Clay Soil
......A-F, G-L, M-R,
......S-Z
...in Lime-Free
(Acid) Soil
......A-F, G-L, M-R,
......S-Z
...in Light
Sand Soil
......A-F, G-L, M-R,
......S-Z.
...Poisonous Plants.
...Extra Plant Pages
with its 6 Plant Selection Levels

Soil
...Interaction between 2 Quartz Sand Grains to make soil
...How roots of plants are in control in the soil
...Without replacing Soil Nutrients, the soil will break up to only clay, sand or silt
...Subsidence caused by water in Clay
...Use water ring for trees/shrubs for first 2 years.

Tool Shed with 3 kneeling pads
Useful Data with benefits of Seaweed

Topic -
Plant Photo Galleries
If the plant type below has flowers, then the first gallery will include the flower thumbnail in each month of 1 of 6 colour comparison pages of each plant in its subsidiary galleries, as a low-level Plant Selection Process
Aquatic
Bamboo
Bedding
...by Flower Shape

Bulb
...Allium/ Anemone
...Autumn
...Colchicum/ Crocus
...Dahlia
...Gladiolus with its 40 Flower Colours
......European A-E
......European F-M
......European N-Z
......European Non-classified
......American A,
B, C, D, E, F, G,
 H, I, J, K, L, M,
 N, O, P, Q, R, S,
 T, U, V, W, XYZ
......American Non-classified
......Australia - empty
......India
......Lithuania
...Hippeastrum/ Lily
...Late Summer
...Narcissus
...Spring
...Tulip
...Winter
...Each of the above ...Bulb Galleries has its own set of Flower Colour Pages
...Flower Shape
...Bulb Form
...Bulb Use
...Bulb in Soil

Further details on bulbs from the Infill Galleries:-
Hardy Bulbs
...Aconitum
...Allium
...Alstroemeria
...Anemone
...Amaryllis
...Anthericum
...Antholyzas
...Apios
...Arisaema
...Arum
...Asphodeline
...Asphodelus
...Belamcanda
...Bloomeria
...Brodiaea
...Bulbocodium
...Calochorti
...Cyclobothrias
...Camassia
...Colchicum
...Convallaria 
...Forcing Lily of the Valley
...Corydalis
...Crinum
...Crosmia
...Montbretia
...Crocus
...Cyclamen
...Dicentra
...Dierama
...Eranthis
...Eremurus
...Erythrnium
...Eucomis
...Fritillaria
...Funkia
...Galanthus
...Galtonia
...Gladiolus
...Hemerocallis
...Hyacinth
...Hyacinths in Pots
...Scilla
...Puschkinia
...Chionodoxa
...Chionoscilla
...Muscari
...Iris
...Kniphofia
...Lapeyrousia
...Leucojum
...Lilium
...Lilium in Pots
...Malvastrum
...Merendera
...Milla
...Narcissus
...Narcissi in Pots
...Ornithogalum
...Oxalis
...Paeonia
...Ranunculus
...Romulea
...Sanguinaria
...Sternbergia
...Schizostylis
...Tecophilaea
...Trillium
...Tulip
...Zephyranthus
Half-Hardy Bulbs
...Acidanthera
...Albuca
...Alstroemeri
...Andro-stephium
...Bassers
...Boussing-aultias
...Bravoas
...Cypellas
...Dahlias
...Galaxis,
...Geissorhizas
...Hesperanthas
...Gladioli
...Ixias
...Sparaxises
...Babianas
...Morphixias
...Tritonias
...Ixiolirions
...Moraeas
...Ornithogalums
...Oxalises
...Phaedra-nassas
...Pancratiums
...Tigridias
...Zephyranthes
...Cooperias
Uses of Bulbs:-
...for Bedding
...in Windowboxes
...in Border
...naturalized in Grass
...in Bulb Frame
...in Woodland Garden
...in Rock Garden
...in Bowls
...in Alpine House
...Bulbs in Green-house or Stove:-
...Achimenes
...Alocasias
...Amorpho-phalluses
...Arisaemas
...Arums
...Begonias
...Bomareas
...Caladiums
...Clivias
...Colocasias
...Crinums
...Cyclamens
...Cyrtanthuses
...Eucharises
...Urceocharis
...Eurycles
...Freesias
...Gloxinias
...Haemanthus
...Hippeastrums
...Lachenalias
...Nerines
...Lycorises
...Pencratiums
...Hymenocallises
...Richardias
...Sprekelias
...Tuberoses
...Vallotas
...Watsonias
...Zephyranthes
...Plant Bedding in
......Spring
......Summer
...Bulb houseplants flowering during:-
......January
......February
......March
......April
......May
......June
......July
......August
......September
......October
......November
......December
...Bulbs and other types of plant flowering during:-
......Dec-Jan
......Feb-Mar
......Apr-May
......Jun-Aug
......Sep-Oct
......Nov-Dec
...Selection of the smaller and choicer plants for the Smallest of Gardens with plant flowering during the same 6 periods as in the previous selection

Climber in
3 Sector Vertical Plant System
...Clematis
...Climbers
Conifer
Deciduous Shrub
...Shrubs - Decid
Deciduous Tree
...Trees - Decid
Evergreen Perennial
...P-Evergreen A-L
...P-Evergreen M-Z
...Flower Shape
Evergreen Shrub
...Shrubs - Evergreen
...Heather Shrub
...Heather Index
......Andromeda
......Bruckenthalia
......Calluna
......Daboecia
......Erica: Carnea
......Erica: Cinerea
......Erica: Others
Evergreen Tree
...Trees - Evergreen
Fern
Grass
Hedging
Herbaceous
Perennial
...P -Herbaceous
...Peony
...Flower Shape
...RHS Wisley
......Mixed Border
......Other Borders
Herb
Odds and Sods
Rhododendron

Rose
...RHS Wisley A-F
...RHS Wisley G-R
...RHS Wisley S-Z
...Rose Use - page links in row 6. Rose, RHS Wisley and Other Roses rose indices on each Rose Use page
...Other Roses A-F
...Other Roses G-R
...Other Roses S-Z
Pruning Methods
Photo Index R 1, 2, 3
Peter Beales Roses
RV Roger Roses

Soft Fruit
Top Fruit
...Apple
...Cherry
...Pear
Vegetable
Wild Flower and
Butterfly page links are in next row

Topic -
UK Butterfly:-
...Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly Usage
of Plants.
...Plant Usage by
Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly.

Both native wildflowers and cultivated plants, with these
...Flower Shape,
...Uses in USA,
...Uses in UK and
...Flo Cols / month are used by Butter-flies native in UK


Wild Flower with its wildflower flower colour page, space,
data page(s).
...Blue Site Map.
Scented Flower, Foliage, Root.
Story of their Common Names.
Use of Plant with Flowers.
Use for Non-Flowering Plants.
Edible Plant Parts.
Flower Legend.
Flowering plants of Chalk and
Limestone 1, 2.
Flowering plants of Acid Soil 1.
...Brown Botanical Names.
Food for
Butterfly/Moth.
...Cream Common Names.
Coastal and Dunes.
Sandy Shores and Dunes.
...Green Broad-leaved Woods.
...Mauve Grassland - Acid, Neutral, Chalk.
...Multi-Cols Heaths and Moors.
...Orange Hedge-rows and Verges.
...Pink A-G Lakes, Canals and Rivers.
...Pink H-Z Marshes, Fens, Bogs.
...Purple Old Buildings and Walls.
...Red Pinewoods.
...White A-D
Saltmarshes.
Shingle Beaches, Rocks and Cliff Tops.
...White E-P Other.
...White Q-Z Number of Petals.
...Yellow A-G
Pollinator.
...Yellow H-Z
Poisonous Parts.
...Shrub/Tree River Banks and other Freshwater Margins. and together with cultivated plants in
Colour Wheel.

You know its
name:-
a-h, i-p, q-z,
Botanical Names, or Common Names,
habitat:-
on Acid Soil,
on Calcareous
(Chalk) Soil,
on Marine Soil,
on Neutral Soil,
is a Fern,
is a Grass,
is a Rush,
is a Sedge, or
is Poisonous.

Each plant in each WILD FLOWER FAMILY PAGE will have a link to:-
1) its created Plant Description Page in its Common Name column, then external sites:-
2) to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name column,
3) to see photos in its Flowering Months column and
4) to read habitat details in its Habitat Column.
Adder's Tongue
Amaranth
Arrow-Grass
Arum
Balsam
Bamboo
Barberry
Bedstraw
Beech
Bellflower
Bindweed
Birch
Birds-Nest
Birthwort
Bogbean
Bog Myrtle
Borage
Box
Broomrape
Buckthorn
Buddleia
Bur-reed
Buttercup
Butterwort
Cornel (Dogwood)
Crowberry
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2
Cypress
Daffodil
Daisy
Daisy Cudweeds
Daisy Chamomiles
Daisy Thistle
Daisy Catsears Daisy Hawkweeds
Daisy Hawksbeards
Daphne
Diapensia
Dock Bistorts
Dock Sorrels
Clubmoss
Duckweed
Eel-Grass
Elm
Filmy Fern
Horsetail
Polypody
Quillwort
Royal Fern
Figwort - Mulleins
Figwort - Speedwells
Flax
Flowering-Rush
Frog-bit
Fumitory
Gentian
Geranium
Glassworts
Gooseberry
Goosefoot
Grass 1
Grass 2
Grass 3
Grass Soft
Bromes 1
Grass Soft
Bromes 2
Grass Soft
Bromes 3
Hazel
Heath
Hemp
Herb-Paris
Holly
Honeysuckle
Horned-Pondweed
Hornwort
Iris
Ivy
Jacobs Ladder
Lily
Lily Garlic
Lime
Lobelia
Loosestrife
Mallow
Maple
Mares-tail
Marsh Pennywort
Melon (Gourd/Cucumber)
Mesem-bryanthemum
Mignonette
Milkwort
Mistletoe
Moschatel
Naiad
Nettle
Nightshade
Oleaster
Olive
Orchid 1
Orchid 2
Orchid 3
Orchid 4
Parnassus-Grass
Peaflower
Peaflower
Clover 1
Peaflower
Clover 2
Peaflower
Clover 3
Peaflower Vetches/Peas
Peony
Periwinkle
Pillwort
Pine
Pink 1
Pink 2
Pipewort
Pitcher-Plant
Plantain
Pondweed
Poppy
Primrose
Purslane
Rannock Rush
Reedmace
Rockrose
Rose 1
Rose 2
Rose 3
Rose 4
Rush
Rush Woodrushes
Saint Johns Wort
Saltmarsh Grasses
Sandalwood
Saxifrage
Seaheath
Sea Lavender
Sedge Rush-like
Sedges Carex 1
Sedges Carex 2
Sedges Carex 3
Sedges Carex 4
Spindle-Tree
Spurge
Stonecrop
Sundew
Tamarisk
Tassel Pondweed
Teasel
Thyme 1
Thyme 2
Umbellifer 1
Umbellifer 2
Valerian
Verbena
Violet
Water Fern
Waterlily
Water Milfoil
Water Plantain
Water Starwort
Waterwort
Willow
Willow-Herb
Wintergreen
Wood-Sorrel
Yam
Yew


Topic -
The following is a complete hierarchical Plant Selection Process
dependent on the Garden Style chosen
Garden Style
...Infill Plants
...12 Bloom Colours per Month Index
...12 Foliage Colours per Month Index
...All Plants Index
...Cultivation, Position, Use Index
...Shape, Form
Index
 


Topic -
Flower/Foliage Colour Wheel Galleries with number of colours as a high-level Plant Selection Process

All Flowers 53 with
...Use of Plant and
Flower Shape - page links in bottom row

All Foliage 53
instead of redundant
...(All Foliage 212)

All Flowers
per Month 12

Bee instead of wind pollinated plants for hay-fever sufferers
All Bee-Pollinated Flowers
per Month 12
...Index

Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
Rock Plant Flowers 53 INDEX
A, B, C, D, E, F,
G, H, I, J, K, L,
M, NO, PQ, R, S,
T, UVWXYZ
...Rock Plant Photos

Flower Colour Wheel without photos, but with links to photos
12 Bloom Colours
per Month Index
...All Plants Index


Topic -
Use of Plant in your Plant Selection Process

Plant Colour Wheel Uses
with
1. Perfect general use soil is composed of 8.3% lime, 16.6% humus, 25% clay and 50% sand, and
2. Why you are continually losing the SOIL STRUCTURE so your soil - will revert to clay, chalk, sand or silt.
Uses of Plant and Flower Shape:-
...Foliage Only
...Other than Green Foliage
...Trees in Lawn
...Trees in Small Gardens
...Wildflower Garden
...Attract Bird
...Attract Butterfly
1, 2
...Climber on House Wall
...Climber not on House Wall
...Climber in Tree
...Rabbit-Resistant
...Woodland
...Pollution Barrier
...Part Shade
...Full Shade
...Single Flower provides Pollen for Bees
1, 2, 3
...Ground-Cover
<60cm
60-180cm
>180cm
...Hedge
...Wind-swept
...Covering Banks
...Patio Pot
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border
...Poisonous
...Adjacent to Water
...Bog Garden
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Winter-Flowering
...Fragrant
...Not Fragrant
...Exhibition
...Standard Plant is 'Ball on Stick'
...Upright Branches or Sword-shaped leaves
...Plant to Prevent Entry to Human or Animal
...Coastal Conditions
...Tolerant on North-facing Wall
...Cut Flower
...Potted Veg Outdoors
...Potted Veg Indoors
...Thornless
...Raised Bed Outdoors Veg
...Grow in Alkaline Soil A-F, G-L, M-R,
S-Z
...Grow in Acidic Soil
...Grow in Any Soil
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Grow Bulbs Indoors

Uses of Bedding
...Bedding Out
...Filling In
...Screen-ing
...Pots and Troughs
...Window Boxes
...Hanging Baskets
...Spring Bedding
...Summer Bedding
...Winter Bedding
...Foliage instead of Flower
...Coleus Bedding Photos for use in Public Domain 1

Uses of Bulb
...Other than Only Green Foliage
...Bedding or Mass Planting
...Ground-Cover
...Cut-Flower
...Tolerant of Shade
...In Woodland Areas
...Under-plant
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Covering Banks
...In Water
...Beside Stream or Water Garden
...Coastal Conditions
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border or Back-ground Plant
...Fragrant Flowers
...Not Fragrant Flowers
...Indoor
House-plant
...Grow in a Patio Pot
...Grow in an Alpine Trough
...Grow in an Alpine House
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Speciman Plant
...Into Native Plant Garden
...Naturalize in Grass
...Grow in Hanging Basket
...Grow in Window-box
...Grow in Green-house
...Grow in Scree
...Naturalized Plant Area
...Grow in Cottage Garden
...Attracts Butterflies
...Attracts Bees
...Resistant to Wildlife
...Bulb in Soil:-
......Chalk
......Clay
......Sand
......Lime-Free (Acid)
......Peat

Uses of Rose
Rose Index
...Bedding 1, 2
...Climber /Pillar
...Cut-Flower 1, 2
...Exhibition, Speciman
...Ground-Cover
...Grow In A Container 1, 2
...Hedge 1, 2
...Climber in Tree
...Woodland
...Edging Borders
...Tolerant of Poor Soil 1, 2
...Tolerant of Shade
...Back of Border
...Adjacent to Water
...Page for rose use as ARCH ROSE, PERGOLA ROSE, COASTAL CONDITIONS ROSE, WALL ROSE, STANDARD ROSE, COVERING BANKS or THORNLESS ROSES.
...FRAGRANT ROSES
...NOT FRAGRANT ROSES


Topic -
Camera Photo Galleries showing all 4000 x 3000 pixels of each photo on your screen that you can then click and drag it to your desktop as part of a Plant Selection Process:-

RHS Garden at Wisley
Plant Supports -
When supporting plants in a bed, it is found that not only do those plants grow upwards, but also they expand their roots and footpad sideways each year. Pages
1, 2, 3, 8, 11,
12, 13,
Plants 4, 7, 10,
Bedding Plants 5,
Plant Supports for Unknown Plants 5,
Clematis Climbers 6,
the RHS does not appear to either follow it's own pruning advice or advice from The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown.
ISBN 0-571-11084-3 with the plants in Pages 1-7 of this folder. You can see from looking at both these resources as to whether the pruning carried out on the remainder of the plants in Pages 7-15 was correct.
Narcissus (Daffodil) 9,
Phlox Plant Supports 14, 15

Coleus Bedding Foliage Trial - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, Index

National Trust Garden at Sissinghurst Castle
Plant Supports -
Pages for Gallery 1
with Plant Supports
1, 5, 10
Plants
 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9,
11, 12
Recommended Rose Pruning Methods 13
Pages for Gallery 2
with Plant Supports
2,
Plants 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Dry Garden of
RHS Garden at
Hyde Hall
Plants - Pages
without Plant Supports
Plants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Nursery of
Peter Beales Roses
Display Garden
Roses Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13

Nursery of
RV Roger
Roses - Pages
A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,
A6,A7,A8,A9,A10,
A11,A12,A13,A14,
B15,
B16,B17,B18,B19,
B20,
B21,B22,B23,B24,
B25,
B26,B27,B28,B29,
B30,
C31,C32,C33,C34,
C35,
C36,C37,C38,C39,
C40,
C41,CD2,D43,D44,
D45,
D46,D47,D48,D49,
E50,
E51,E52,F53,F54,
F55,
F56,F57,G58,G59,
H60,
H61,I62,K63,L64,
M65,
M66,N67,P68,P69,
P70,
R71,R72,S73,S74,
T75,
V76,Z77, 78,

Damage by Plants in Chilham Village - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4

Pavements of Funchal, Madeira
Damage to Trees - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13
for trees 1-54,
14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
for trees 55-95,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37,
for trees 95-133,
38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
for trees 133-166

Chris Garnons-Williams
Work Done - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13

Identity of Plants
Label Problems - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11

Ron and Christine Foord - 1036 photos only inserted so far - Garden Flowers - Start Page of each Gallery
AB1 ,AN14,BA27,
CH40,CR52,DR63,
FR74,GE85,HE96,

Plant with Photo Index of Ivydene Gardens - 1187
A 1, 2, Photos - 43
B 1, Photos - 13
C 1, Photos - 35
D 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
Photos - 411
with Plants causing damage to buildings in Chilham Village and Damage to Trees in Pavements of Funchal
E 1, Photos - 21
F 1, Photos - 1
G 1, Photos - 5
H 1, Photos - 21
I 1, Photos - 8
J 1, Photos - 1
K 1, Photos - 1
L 1, Photos - 85
with Label Problems
M 1, Photos - 9
N 1, Photos - 12
O 1, Photos - 5
P 1, Photos - 54
Q 1, Photos -
R 1, 2, 3,
Photos - 229
S 1, Photos - 111
T 1, Photos - 13
U 1, Photos - 5
V 1, Photos - 4
W 1, Photos - 100
with Work Done by Chris Garnons-Williams
X 1 Photos -
Y 1, Photos -
Z 1 Photos -
Articles/Items in Ivydene Gardens - 88
Flower Colour, Num of Petals, Shape and
Plant Use of:-
Rock Garden
within linked page

 

 

Topic -
Fragrant Plants as a Plant Selection Process for your sense of smell:-
Sense of Fragrance from Roy Genders

Fragrant Plants:-
Trees and Shrubs with Scented Flowers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Shrubs bearing Scented Flowers for an Acid Soil
1, 2, 3, 4
Shrubs bearing Scented Flowers for a
Chalky or Limestone Soil
1, 2, 3, 4
Shrubs bearing Scented leaves for a
Sandy Soil
1, 2, 3
Herbaceous Plants with Scented Flowers
1, 2, 3
Annual and Biennial Plants with Scented Flowers or Leaves
1, 2
Bulbs and Corms with Scented Flowers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Scented Plants of Climbing and Trailing Habit
1, 2, 3
Winter-flowering Plants with Scented Flowers
1, 2
Night-scented Flowering Plants
1, 2
 


Topic -
Website User Guidelines

My Gas Service Engineer found Flow and Return pipes incorrectly positioned on gas boilers and customers had refused to have positioning corrected in 2020.
 

Botanical Name of each Plant within each Botanical Name Extras Page:-

Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis from Wild Flowers as They Grow- Photographed by H. Essenhigh Corke, text by G. Clark Nuttall. Published by Cassell and Company, Ltd in 7 separate books between 1911 and 1914:-
"A beautiful legend tells how, after the Fall of Man, the snow was falling, covering the earth with a white pall. Eve was weeping bitterly, for in the barrenness outside the Garden all was desolate, no flowers grew, and hope seemed dead. Then an angel came to comfort her, and caught a flake of the driving snow, breathed on it, and bade it bloom as an earnest that hope still lived and summer and flowers would come again. So the Snowdrop was born and is, to this day, the emblem of consolation and hope.

A complete plant consists of 1 single flower, 2 leaves, a brown bulb, and some rootlets. Each year it throws off tiny bulbs which grow during the year to the size of the parent. If we attempt to dig up a piece of ground where snowdrops freely grow, we discover that the earth is so thickly set with bulbs that the spade can hardly get between them, for there are as many bulbs as flowers, and half as many bulbs as leaves.
When the flower fades, then the 2 narrow leaves begin to grow. Hitherto they have been small, but now they double their length. This enables them to double their capacity for the manufacture of food stuffs. And they have plenty of work to do, for by the end of September the rudiments of the leaves and flowers for the following spring have been formed, and finally when they wither, a large store of starch will have been transferred from their tissues to the bulb for future use as food.
Although in autumn the whole plant is apparently quite ready for development early in the following spring, yet experience shows that no amount of forcing will make it fully develop its flower in every detail, even though the leaves and a blossom may be produced at once. But when the bulb has had some 4 month's rest, then flowers and leaves grow up quite naturally at a temperature almost at freezing point.
Sometimes, but not always, for the weather may be too severe, a hive bee comes on a sunshiny noon and fertilises the flower. Finally, when she returns to the hive, she carries back honey for storage and pollen for bee-bread, and, incidentally has acted as intermmediary between many flowers. But, the weather may be wholly against visitors, and if so, after waiting during a lengthened period of flowering, the stamens become relaxed and, therefore, so widely open that the least vibration shakes the flowery pollen out of them like a yellow rain around the viscid ovary column, and hence a flower will fertilise itself in place of fertilisation from another. Thus we understand why Snowdrops wither so much more quickly in fine weather than in bad, for in the sunshine the bees come out and do the necessary fertilising quickly, and then there is no reason for the flower continuing to blossom. In bad weather there are no bees, and the flower holds on bravely as long as possible."

The above is my summary of the chapter on this plant in the above books. They are excellent books for the layman to understand about each of the wildflowers, that he could use in his own garden. I am sorry but I am not going to summarise all of the wildflower plants in those books, but I would at least recommend them to you.
I have 7 volumes in the Fourth Series with its dark blue cover. Some other publishers have published part of these in the current century.

This was sent out to customers of Riverford Organic Farmers (also they publish Wicked Leeks Magazine), who sell us a weekly box of vegetables and recipes, fruit and other items produced on farms; dated Monday 18th October 2021:-
"Agroforestry; together we can make it happen
We must plant trees to tackle the climate crisis - but we must also grow food. Replacing food crops with trees on UK land would only export the environmental impact of feeding ourselves, often to countries with looser legislation. There is a solution: combining tree-planting with crops or livestock between the rows, i.e. agroforestry, can deliver the greatest ecological benefit for the least loss of food production. Nuts grown via agroforestry actually increase total food output per acre, while sequestering CO2 and enhancing biodiversity. It's win, win, win. So why isn't it happenning? The simple answer is that the profits are too distant and uncertain. Protecting our planet's future doesn't pay a cash-strapped farmer today.
Urgent action is needed. Trees need time to grow; we cannot wait any longer for support (and subsidies) to emerge from Defra. So, we have stopped waiting and started doing. We have already planted 30 acres of nut trees, with more on the way - and with your help, we can go even further. The money we spend on online ads to reach new customers, we would much rather give to you for recommending us, and to farmers for planting trees. When you refer a friend to Riverford, and they order a box, we will plant a walnut tree (and give £15 to you both). The trees will be planted on farms across Devon with our local co-op. With Riverford paying for planting, fencing, weeding, and maintenance for the first 5 years, I am confident we can plant 10,000 trees a year, and cover 250 acres. It will also go a considerable way towards offsetting the carbon generated getting veg from the farm to your doorstep.
Together we can...

  • Take a big step towards making your food and our business carbon neutral.
  • Bring biodiversity back to our countryside.
  • Spread the word about Riverford, and help your friends eat really well.
  • Protect the soil, as trees don't need ploughing and re-planting every year.
  • Help farmers move away from annual crops and methane-emitting livestock.
  • Contribute to the move towards UK-grown, plant-based diets, advocated by both nutritionists and environmentalists.

Its actually win, win, win, win, win, win. You can refer as many friends as you like - and if all goes well, there will be Devon-grown hazelnuts in your boxes by 2026, and walnuts by 2028."

Botanical Name Extras Page 91:-
Clematis alpina
Ranunculus sardous
Scilla bifolia
Nicandra physalodes
Campanula uniflora
Gentiana bavarica
Gentiana carpatica
Campanula barbata
Gentiana utricolosa
Anemone apennina
Hyacinthoides non-scripta
Scilla nutans
Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Sisyrinchium bermudiana
Sysyrinchium anceps
Omphalodes verna
Anagallis foemina
Anagallis caerulea
Anagallis arvensis subsp. foemina
Asperula arvensis
Lappula squarrosa
Campanula cervicaria
Cicerbita plumieri
Globularia vulgaris
Globularia tricosantha
Gentiana cruciata
Linum usitatissimum
Humulus lupulus
Aster novi-belgii
Rubus fruticosus
Mahonia aquifolium
Buddleja davidii
Pinguicula vulgaris
Pinguicula grandiflora

Botanical Name Extras Page 92
Pinguicula lusitanica.
Pulicaria dysenterica.
Hypochoeris maculata.
Lycopodium alpinum.
Calendula officinalis.
Erinus alpinus
Hydrocharis morsus-ranae.
Gentianella septentrionalis.

Normally in the fourth column below, I insert which countries in Europe, the plant is native in; introduced into or except from.
Soviet Union completes the Regions of Europe.
If this plant is also part of the flora of USA, Canada, or China then normally I would insert this fact in the fifth column below.

Seeing which Native UK Wildflowers are also native in your country within Europe, Soviet Union, USA, Canada or China (from AC to CE) you can then use them with the cultivated plants for your country in your own home garden - so help your local wildlife including Butterflies - and home with snippets from Flower Arrangements from Wild Flowers by Violet Stevenson. Published by J M Dent & Sons in 1972. ISBN 0 460 07844 5. View my chapter precis before executing the flower arranging of the plants.

The Saxifraga Foundation is a network of European nature photographers, whose aim is to stimulate and facilitate the conservation of European biodiversity. They do so by providing high-quality nature pictures free of charge.

The website free natureimages.eu is an initiative of the Saxifraga Foundation. The Saxifrage foundation is assisted by the Crossbill Guides Foundation, Dutch Butterfly Conservation (De Vlinderstichting) and Foto Fitis.

Currently, Saxifraga is working on two projects. The first one is the construction of a gallery of pictures of European plants, animals and landscapes. To download these pictures, go to the Saxifraga Gallery. With the search engine you can search for images using the scientific name or the common name of plants and animals in Dutch and English.

The second project is the creation of a collection of images of the Dutch landscape (NL in Beeld). This has been done by taking pictures in a grid in a systematic way. We have used the so called Amersfoort-coordinates, which are found on official Dutch topographic maps. The Amersfoort grid is a collection of square kilometers. To find more details visit the website of NL in Beeld. The pictures can be viewed at the Saxifraga Gallery.

United States Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone Map - This map of USA is based on a range of average annual minimum winter temperatures, divided into 13 of 10-degree F zones, that this plant will thrive in USA, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. There are other Hardiness Zone Maps for the rest of the world including the one for Great Britain and Ireland of zones 7a to 10a. If the plant you see here has the same zone in your area of that country, then you can grow it at your home.

Cultural Needs of Plants
from Chapter 4 in Fern Grower's Manual by Barbara Joe Hoshizaki & Robbin C. Moran. Revised and Expanded Edition. Published in 2001 by Timber Press, Inc. Reprinted 2002, 2006. ISBN-13:978-0-
88192-495-4.

"Understanding Fern Needs
Ferns have the same basic growing requirements as other plants and will thrive when these are met. There is nothing mysterious about the requirements - they are not something known only to people with green thumbs - but the best gardeners are those who understand plant requirements and are careful about satisfying them.
What, then, does a fern need?

All plants need water. Water in the soil prevents roots from drying, and all mineral nutrients taken up by the roots must be dissolved in the soil water. Besides water in the soil, most plants need water in the air. Adequate humidity keeps the plant from drying out. Leaves need water for photosynthesis and to keep from wilting.
All green plants need light to manufacture food (sugars) by photosynthesis. Some plants need more light than others, and some can flourish in sun or shade. Most ferns, however, prefer some amount of shade.
For photosynthesis, plants require carbon dioxide, a gas that is exhaled by animals as waste. Carbon dioxide diffuses into plants through tiny pores, called stomata, that abound on the lower surface of the leaves. In the leaf, carbon dioxide is combined with the hydrogen from water to form carbohydrates, the plant's food. This process takes place only in the presence of light and chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plant cells. To enhance growth, some commercial growers increase the carbon dioxide level in their greenhouses to 600ppm (parts per million), or twice the amount typically found in the air.
Plants need oxygen. The green plants of a plant do not require much oxygen from the air because plants produce more oxygen by photosynthesis than they use. The excess oxygen liberated from the plants is used by all animals, including humans. What do plants do with oxygen? They use it just as we do, to release the energy stored in food. We use energy to move about, to talk, to grow, to think - in fact, for all our life processes. Although plants don't talk or move much, they do grow and metabolize and must carry on all their life processes using oxygen to release the stored energy in their food.
Roots need air all the time. They get it from the air spaces between the soil particles. Overwatering displaces the air between soil particles with water, thereby removing the oxygen needed by the roots. This reduces the root's ability to absorb mineral nutrients and can foster root-rot.
Plants need minerals to grow properly. The minerals are mined from the soil by the plant's root system. If a certain mineral is missing, such as calcium needed for developing cell walls, then the plant will be stunted, discoloured, or deformed.
Some plants tolerate a wide range of temperatures, whereas others are fussy. If the temperature is too high or low, the machinery of the plant will not operate satisfactorily or will cease entirely.

The basic needs of plants are not hard to supply, but growing success depends on attending to these needs with care and exactitude. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of these requirements, with the exception of mineral needs, which are discussed in Chapter 5."

But unfortunately the human population in this world do not understand the above needs for plants as shown by:-

Article on Welcome Page about trees falling down within pavements in Funchal, Madeira
followed by these 4000 x 3000 pixel photos, which show precisely how badly people treat these trees in Madeira - including burnt insides of tree trunks.

They set light to the rubbish collected inside the tree trunk, either by a discarded match used to light a cigarette or the stub of that cigarette. This then burns the rubbish inserted by the public and it also burns the rotting and non-rotting heartwood, whilst still allowing the public to wander past the burning or burnt tree. Stubs of cigarettes and discarded lit matches are also dropped on exposed tree roots:-

Pavements of Funchal, Madeira
Damage to Trees - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13
for trees 1-54,
14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
for trees 55-95,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37,
for trees 95-133,
38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
for trees 133-166

The easiest, cheapest and quickest solution for existing pavement areas using pavers or paving slabs is the SuDSFLOW System using paving spacers to create permeable paving. See further details within the row for the London Planetree at the bottom of Botanical Name PH-PL 60 page.

 

It is worth remembering that especially with roses that the colour of the petals of the flower may change - The following photos are of Rosa 'Lincolnshire Poacher' which I took on the same day in R.V. Roger's Nursery Field:-

poacherrose1garnonswilliams

Closed Bud

poacherrose2garnonswilliams

Opening Bud

poacherrose3garnonswilliams

Juvenile Flower

poacherrose4garnonswilliams

Older Juvenile Flower

poacherrose5garnonswilliams

Middle-aged Flower - Flower Colour in Season in its
Rose Description Page is
"Buff Yellow, with a very slight pink tint at the edges in May-October."

poacherrose6garnonswilliams

Mature Flower

poacherrose7garnonswilliams

Juvenile Flower and Dying Flower

poacherrose8garnonswilliams

Form of Rose Bush

There are 720 roses in the Rose Galleries; many of which have the above series of pictures in their respective Rose Description Page.

So one might avoid the disappointment that the 2 elephants had when their trunks were entwined instead of them each carrying their trunk using their own trunk, and your disappointment of buying a rose to discover that the colour you bought it for is only the case when it has its juvenile flowers; if you look at all the photos of the roses in the respective Rose Description Page!!!!

 

 

My current ambition at my retired age of 73 in 2022 (having started this website in 2005) is to complete the following:-

Wildflower Flower Shape and Landscape Uses Gallery has an empty framework that I created on 20 February 2022. When all the remainder of the UK wildflowers have been checked:-

  • to see if they are also native in the USA and/or Canada - if the UK native plant botanical name matches one in the Flora of America and Canada, then the info from Flora of America and Canada is added to the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries, but the UK Wildflower Family Pages will not be amended by this or other data from the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries (completed in April 2022) - and
  • to see if they are also native in China - if the UK native plant botanical name matches one like Achillea millefolium 蓍 shi, then the info from Flora of China is added to the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries - (completed only from AC to CE in June 2022) and
  • insert snippets from Flower Arrangements from Wild Flowers into the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries - (completed in June 2022) and
  • have been copied from the unamended Wildflower Family pages to the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries (completed in June 2022).
  • Then, I will insert the information from the books associated with the Evergreen Perennial Shape gallery - Flower Shape - to that gallery and to the Wildflower Flower Shape and Landscape Uses Gallery for the evergreen perennials:-
    • Landscaping with Perennials by Emily Brown. 5th printing 1989 by Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-063-0 for planting sites for perennials, which include most plant types except Annuals and Biennials.
    • Perennials & Ephemerals chapter of Plants for Dry Gardens by Jane Taylor. Published by Frances Lincoln Limited in 1993. ISBN 0-7112-0772-0 for plants that are drought tolerant.
    • Alpines without a Garden by Lawrence D. Hills. Published by Faber and Faber Limited in 1953 for cultivation of alpines in pans, troughs and window-boxes, particularly in towns, for gardeners who have only windowsills or verandas, or flat roof spaces.
    • Colour All The Year in My Garden by C.H. Middleton. Published by Ward, Lock & Co. for culture.
    • Perennials The Gardener's Reference by Susan Carter, Carrie Becker and Bob Lilly. Published by Timber Press in 2007 for plants for Special Gardens. It also gives details of species and cultivars for each genus.

Then, the wildflower entries in the Wildflower Flower Shape and Landscape Uses Gallery will be filled in after each Wildflower has its cultivation details added to the Botanical Names and Common Names Galleries.

Starting the above from 20 February 2022, I think it might take me a few years, but it does mean that as I progress then you will be able to associate more wildflowers with more of all the plant types of the cultivated plants who have similar growing requirements.

Then, more of the natural world with its wildlife could also inhabit your garden.

 

 

Aims of the Wild Flower Society
From the respect and awareness of plants in their natural surroundings instilled in children, the Wild Flower Society was born and our 3 aims are:

• to promote a greater knowledge of field botany among the general public and in particular among young people;
• to advance education in matters relating to the conservation of wild flowers and of the countryside;
• to promote the conservation of the British flora.


Changes in recent years
Since Professor Clive Stace brought out his first edition of New Flora of the British Isles it was clear to many botanical associations including The Wild Flower Society that we could now use a more up to date reference than Douglas Kent's revision of Dandy's list of Vascular Plants of the British Isles. The Society chose this text now known simply as "Stace" as our reference flora but retained Kent's list with its more detailed list of the apomictic plants like Hawkweeds, Brambles, Dandelions and so on. The progress made in plant taxonomy using both cladistics and molecular biological techniques, led to major taxonomic changes in both Stace 3 and Stace 4. The diary was extensively revised following Stace 3 and is to be revised again following the publication of Stace 4 in 2019.
The most recent changes have involved Social media. The Wild Flower Society now has Facebook group account and a Twitter account. This means that if you have a personal Facebook account, you can apply to join our otherwise private group. Once accepted this entitles you to post photographs of plants you have found and get them identified, assuming that is possible, by the expert botanists who are members of the group. In summer it is not unusual for an identification to be resolved within 10 minutes of it being posted. The Wild Flower Society at one time had over 1,000 subscribing members and although that membership is lower, near 680 now, those who are associated with the society through social media are in excess of 3,000 and increasing every week (1 January 2022).

Plants included in Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981

 

 

Identifying Edible and Poisonous Wild Plants
Wild Food UK Hedgerow Guide aims to help you forage for British plants that are relatively common in the wild, easy to find and good to eat – and to avoid those that are inedible or poisonous.
Never rely on one source for plant identification, and never eat anything unless you are 100% sure it is edible. We will not be held responsible for the use of the information in this guide.
Hedgerows are a great place to find most of these plants, but do look around in woods and fields as many grow there too.
You can filter to see what’s in season currently. If you want to learn more about wild food and foraging then why not come on one of our courses? You can also forage for Mushrooms and cook with Wild Food Recipes.

 

From the Ode to the London Plane Tree by Heather Greaves:-

"They are also very important to the city of New York (and not just because the leaf is the Parks Department logo). The London Plane, usually considered Platanus x acerifolia but also known by other Latin epithets, is not really native, although it very closely resembles the native American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis. Actually, it is probably a cross between this American species and Platanus orientalis, a Eurasian relative. In any case, it has been widely planted as a city tree for decades, which turns out to be a good idea. In its assessment of the New York City urban forest, the US Forest Service Northern Research Station determined that the London plane is the most important city tree we have.

They base this conclusion on several factors. For one thing, London planes have a very high leaf area per tree; that is, the London plane gives us a lot more pretty, shady, air-filtering, evaporatively-cooling leaves per single trunk than most other species in the city. In fact, according to the Forest Service, London planes make up just 4% of the city tree population, but represent 14% of the city's total leaf area. (Compare this with the virulently invasive tree of heaven [Ailanthus altissima], which constitutes 9% of the tree population but only about 4% of the total leaf area.)

Also, because they tend to become very tall and have large canopies, London planes are our best trees for carbon storage and sequestration. They are holding on to about 185,000 tons of carbon (14% of the total urban tree carbon pool), and each year they sequester another 5,500 or so tons (about 13% of all the carbon sequestered by city trees each year). That makes them both gorgeous and highly beneficial: all in all, good trees to have around."

 

Hemp (cannabis sativa) - 1% of Irelands landmass, growing hemp for fuel, would provide all the energy needs for the country each year, keeping the money with the farmers and keeping the rural economies active and this is also an environmentally friendly fuel. Hemp only has 100,000 commercial uses, so is not worth growing. 1 acre of hemp = 1,000 gallons of methanol and is cheaper to produce than petrol or diesel

Ivydene Gardens Water Fern to Yew Wild Flower Families Gallery:
Wildflower 17 Flower Colours per Month

Only Wildflowers detailed in the following Wildflower Colour Pages
are compared in all the relevant month(s) of when that Wildflower flowers -
in the Wildflower Flower Colour
of that row

CREAM WILD FLOWER GALLERY PAGE MENUS


Common Name with Botanical Name, Wild Flower Family, Flower Colour and Form Index of each of all the Wildflowers of the UK in 1965:- AC,AL,AS,BE,
BL,BO,BR,CA,
CL,CO,CO,CO,
CR,DA,DO,EA,
FE,FI,FR,GO,
GR,GU,HA,HO,
IR,KN,LE,LE,
LO,MA,ME,MO,
NA,NO,PE,PO,
PY,RE,RO,SA,
SE,SE,SK,SM,
SO,SP,ST,SW,
TO,TW,WA,WE,
WI,WO,WO,YE

Extra Common Names have been added within a row for a different plant. Each Extra Common Name Plant will link to an Extras Page where it will be detailed in its own row.

EXTRAS 57,58,
59,60,

 

BROWN WILD FLOWER GALLERY PAGE MENUS

Botanical Name with Common Name, Wild Flower Family, Flower Colour and Form Index of each of all the Wildflowers of the UK in 1965:- AC, AG,AL,AL,AN,
AR,AR,AS,BA,
BR,BR,CA,CA,
CA,CA,CA,CA,
CA,CE,CE,CH,
CI,CO,CR,DA,
DE,DR,EP,EP,
ER,EU,FE,FO,
GA,GA,GE,GL,
HE,HI,HI,HY,
IM,JU,KI,LA,
LE,LI,LL,LU,LY, ME,ME,MI,MY,
NA,OE,OR,OR,
PA,PH,PL,PO,
PO,PO,PO,PU,
RA,RH,RO,RO,
RU,SA,SA,SA,
SC,SC,SE,SI,
SI,SO,SP,ST,
TA,TH,TR,TR,
UR,VE,VE,VI

Extra Botanical Names have been added within a row for a different plant. Each Extra Botanical Name Plant will link to an Extras Page where it will be detailed in its own row.

EXTRAS 91,
 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Blue

1

1

1

Blue
Edible Plant Parts.
Flower Legend.
Food for Butterfly/Moth..
Flowering plants of
Chalk and Limestone Page 1, Page 2 .
Flowering plants of Acid Soil Page 1 .
SEED COLOUR
Seed 1 ,
Seed 2 .
Use of Plant with Flowers .
Scented Flower, Foliage, Root .
Story of their Common Names.
Use for Non-Flowering Plants .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Brown

1

1

1

Brown
Botanical Names .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Cream

1

1

1

Cream
Common Names .
Coastal and Dunes .
Sandy Shores and Dunes .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Green

1

1

1

Green
Broad-leaved Woods .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Mauve

1

1

1

Mauve
Grassland - Acid, Neutral, Chalk.

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Multi-Col-oured

1
 

1
 

1
 

Multi-Cols
Heaths and Moors .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Orange

1

1

1

Orange
Hedgerows and Verges .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Pink

1

1

1

Pink A-G
Lakes, Canals and Rivers .

Pink H-Z
Marshes, Fens, Bogs .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Purple

1

1

1

Purple
Old Buildings and Walls .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Red

1

1

1

Red
Pinewoods .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
White

1

1

1

White A-D
Saltmarshes .
Shingle Beaches, Rocks and
Cliff Tops .

White E-P
Other .

White Q-Z
Number of Petals .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 Yellow

1

1

1

Yellow A-G
Pollinator .

Yellow H-Z
Poisonous Parts .

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Shrub/ Tree

1

1

1

Shrub/Tree
River Banks and
other Freshwater Margins .
 

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Fruit or Seed

1

1

1

SEED COLOUR
Seed 1
Seed 2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Non-Flower Plants

1

1

1

Use for
Non-Flowering Plants

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Chalk and Lime-stone

1

1

1

Flowering plants of
Chalk and Limestone
Page 1
Page 2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
Acid Soil

1

1

1

Flowering plants of
Acid Soil
Page 1

From the Ivydene Gardens Box to Crowberry Wild Flower Families Gallery:
Cornel Family

The Bumblebee Pages website is divided into five major areas:

• Bumblebees which deals solely with bumblebees, and was the original part of the site.
• Invertebrates, which deals with all the other invertebrates.
• Homework answers, where you'll find hints and tips to common questions set as biology, ecology, botany, zoology homework, there are also definitions of common terms in biology.
• Window box gardens, this was started when we were exiled to central Paris, and 2 north-facing window boxes were all the garden available, however it was amazing the wildlife those window boxes attracted. You'll find plant lists, hints and tips, etc.
• Torphins, this is the village in north-east Scotland where we are now located. In this part of the site you can find photographs of invertebrates found locally, where to see them and when, also links to pages with more detailed information.

FORCED INDOOR BULBS in Window Box Gardens.

Once these have flowered don't throw them out. Cut off the heads (unless you want seed) then put them somewhere that the leaves can get the sun. This will feed the bulb for the next year. Once the leaves have died you can plant the bulbs outside and they will flower at the normal (unforced) time next year. The narcissus Tete-a-tete is particularly good, and provides early colour and a delicate fragrance too.

Below I have listed groups of plants. I have tried to include at least four plants in each list as you may not be able to find all of them, although, unless you have a very large windowbox, I would recommend that you have just three in each box.

Theme

Plants

Comments

Thyme

Thymus praecox, wild thyme

Thymus pulegioides

Thymus leucotrichus

Thymus citriodorus

Thymes make a very fragrant, easy to care for windowbox, and an excellent choice for windy sites. The flower colour will be pinky/purple, and you can eat the leaves if your air is not too polluted. Try to get one variegated thyme to add a little colour when there are no flowers.

Herb

Sage, mint, chives, thyme, rosemary

Get the plants from the herb section of the supermarket, so you can eat the leaves. Do not include basil as it need greater fertility than the others. Pot the rosemary up separately if it grows too large.

Mints

Mentha longifolia, horse mint

Mentha spicata, spear mint

Mentha pulgium, pennyroyal

Mentha piperita, peppermint

Mentha suaveolens, apple mint

Mints are fairly fast growers, so you could start this box with seed. They are thugs, though, and will very soon be fighting for space. So you will either have to thin and cut back or else you will end up with one species - the strongest. The very best mint tea I ever had was in Marrakesh. A glass full of fresh mint was placed in front of me, and boiling water was poured into it. Then I was given a cube of sugar to hold between my teeth while I sipped the tea. Plant this box and you can have mint tea for months.

Heather

Too many to list

See Heather Shrub gallery

For year-round colour try to plant varieties that flower at different times of year. Heather requires acid soils, so fertilise with an ericaceous fertilser, and plant in ericaceous compost. Cut back after flowering and remove the cuttings. It is best to buy plants as heather is slow growing.

Blue

Ajuga reptans, bugle

Endymion non-scriptus, bluebell

Myosotis spp., forget-me-not

Pentaglottis sempervirens, alkanet

This will give you flowers from March till July. The bluebells should be bought as bulbs, as seed will take a few years to flower. The others can be started from seed.

Yellow

Anthyllis vulneraria, kidney vetch

Geum urbanum, wood avens

Lathryus pratensis, meadow vetchling

Linaria vulgaris, toadflax

Lotus corniculatus, birdsfoot trefoil

Primula vulgaris, primrose

Ranunculus acris, meadow buttercup

Ranunculus ficaria, lesser celandine

These will give you flowers from May to October, and if you include the primrose, from February. Try to include a vetch as they can climb or trail so occupy the space that other plants can't. All can be grown from seed.

White

Trifolium repens, white clover

Bellis perennis, daisy

Digitalis purpurea alba, white foxglove

Alyssum maritimum

Redsea odorata, mignonette

All can be grown from seed. The clover and daisy will have to be cut back as they will take over. The clover roots add nitrogen to the soil. The mignonette flower doesn't look very special, but the fragrance is wonderful, and the alyssum smells of honey.

Pink

Lychnis flos-cucli, ragged robin

Scabiosa columbaria, small scabious

Symphytum officinale, comfrey

The comfrey will try to take over. Its leaves make an excellent fertiliser, and are very good on the compost heap, though windowbox gardeners rarely have one.

Fragrant

Lonicera spp., honeysuckle

Alyssum maritimum

Redsea odorata, mignonette

Lathyrus odoratus, sweet pea

The sweet pea will need twine or something to climb up, so is suitable if you have sliding windows or window that open inwards. You will be rewarded by a fragrant curtain every time you open your window.

Spring bulbs and late wildflowers

Galanthus nivalis, snowdrop

Narcissus pseudonarcissus, narcissius

Crocus purpureus, crocus

Cyclamen spp.

The idea of this box is to maximize your space. The bulbs (cyclamen has a corm) will flower and do their stuff early in the year. After flowering cut the heads off as you don't want them making seed, but leave the leaves as they fatten up the bulbs to store energy for next year. The foliage of the wildflowers will hide the bulb leaves to some extent. Then the wildflowers take over and flower till autumn

Aster spp., Michaelmas daisy

Linaria vulgaris, toadflax

Lonicera spp., honeysuckle

Succisa pratensis, devil's bit scabious

Mentha pulgium, pennyroyal

Butterfly Garden

 

 

Bee Garden in Europe or North America

 

 

Wildlife-friendly Show Gardens

With around 23 million gardens in the UK, covering 435,000 ha, gardens have great potential as wildlife habitats. And, with a bit of planning and a few tweaks, they can indeed be wonderful places for a whole host of creatures, from birds to bees, butterflies, frogs and toads, as well as many less obvious creatures. Wildlife-friendly gardens can be beautiful too, and a colourful garden full of life can lift the spirits and give immense pleasure, and can also help to connect people, both young and old, with our wonderful wildlife.

The eight-point plan for a wildlife-friendly garden

• Plants, Plants, Plants - The greater the number and variety of plants, the more wildlife you will attract.
• Don’t Just Plant Anything - British natives attract the greatest variety of wildlife, closely followed by species from temperate regions of Europe, Asia and North America.
• Add Water - A pond of any size will boost the variety of creatures in your garden.
• Dead Matters - Dead and decaying vegetation is a vital resource for many creatures.
• Build a Home - Provide bird and bat boxes etc.
• Feed the Birds And other creatures too.
• Don’t Use Pesticides - All pesticides are designed to kill.
• Don’t Put Wildlife in a Ghetto - Make your entire garden wildlife-friendly and a home for wildlife – it will be worth it!

Many of our gardens at Natural Surroundings demonstrate what you can do at home to encourage wildlife in your garden. Follow the links below to explore our show gardens, and when you visit, be sure to pick up a copy of our Wildlife Gardening Trail guide

• The Wildlife Garden
• The Rill Garden
• The Orchard
• The Butterfly Garden
• The Bee Garden
• The Wildlife Pond
• Reptile Refuge
• Creepy-crawly Garden

 

Database of Insects and their Food Plants from the Biological Records Centre:-

This database is primarily a collation of published interactions between Great Britain 's invertebrate herbivores (insects and mites) and their host plants. There are also some interactions for the invertebrates closely associated with herbivores, such as predators, parasitoids, cleptoparasites and mutualists. DBIF contains about 47,000 interactions for roughly 9,300 invertebrate taxa (species, sub-species and forms) and 5,700 plant taxa (species, genera and broader groupings).

DBIF aims to help researchers access the accumulated knowledge of British plant-herbivore interactions, which is otherwise scattered throughout a vast published literature. The database complements the more specialised internet resources that focus on particular groups (see Links). We hope that the database is of use to professional researchers in the environmental sciences and expert amateurs alike.

DBIF is derived from the Phytophagous Insect Data Bank (see PIDB), which was the brainchild of Dr Lena Ward. Many people have contributed to the version of the database presented here; we would like to thank them all for their varied and skilled support (see Acknowledgements).

To ensure that the information held in the database is used appropriately, please take time to read about what the database contains (see Description of the database ), and what caveats or limitations may apply (see Interpreting foodplant records and Limitations ).

Lastly, DBIF is a work in progress and this website is still under development in some areas. We would be very surprised if you did not find some omissions, or nomenclature that did not need updating. Please alert us (see Contact us) of any necessary changes or of the presence of new sources. They will be incorporated in future updates.

A companion piece in the naturalists' magazine British Wildlife (Smith & Roy, 2008) serves as an introduction to invertebrate herbivory and DBIF.

 

From the Ode to the London Plane Tree by Heather Greaves:-

"They are also very important to the city of New York (and not just because the leaf is the Parks Department logo). The London plane, usually considered Platanus x acerifolia but also known by other Latin epithets, is not really native, although it very closely resembles the native American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis. Actually, it is probably a cross between this American species and Platanus orientalis, a Eurasian relative. In any case, it has been widely planted as a city tree for decades, which turns out to be a good idea. In its assessment of the New York City urban forest, the US Forest Service Northern Research Station determined that the London plane is the most important city tree we have.

They base this conclusion on several factors. For one thing, London planes have a very high leaf area per tree; that is, the London plane gives us a lot more pretty, shady, air-filtering, evaporatively-cooling leaves per single trunk than most other species in the city. In fact, according to the Forest Service, London planes make up just 4% of the city tree population, but represent 14% of the city's total leaf area. (Compare this with the virulently invasive tree of heaven [Ailanthus altissima], which constitutes 9% of the tree population but only about 4% of the total leaf area.)

Also, because they tend to become very tall and have large canopies, London planes are our best trees for carbon storage and sequestration. They are holding on to about 185,000 tons of carbon (14% of the total urban tree carbon pool), and each year they sequester another 5,500 or so tons (about 13% of all the carbon sequestered by city trees each year). That makes them both gorgeous and highly beneficial: all in all, good trees to have around."

 

From Sarah Ravens Kitchen & Garden:-

Wildflowers - Chalk and sand, freely-drained soil mix

A wonderfully varied self-sowing wild flower mix for thin, poor, chalky or sandy soils to give your garden or field flowers right through the year and food for the birds and bees.
To cover an area of 3m2
General Height: 60cm.
Sow: April- June

Spring into Summer Flowering

• Cowslip March – May
• Crosswort April - June
• Common Birdsfoot Trefoil May – July
• Kidney Vetch May – July
• Lady’s Bedstraw Late May – August
• Red Clover May – October
• Yellow Rattle May – July
• Meadow Buttercup May – July
• Wild Mignonette May – August

Summer into Autumn Flowering

• Field Scabious June – September
• Hedge Bedstraw June – August
• Viper’s Bugloss June – September
• Meadow Cranesbill June – September
• Greater Knapweed June – August
• Salad Burnet June – September
• Common Knapweed June – September
• Wild Carrot June – September
• Wild Marjoram July – September

 

From Sarah Ravens Kitchen & Garden:-

Wildflowers - Clay and rich loam soil mix

There are two main things I want from my wildflower meadow – to look beautiful for months not weeks, with flowers coming out and going over in succession AND to grow pollen-rich, insect friendly plants from EARLY in the year to LATE. I want my patch to be a regular and reliable food source for the birds and the bees. That’s what you’ll get with this beautiful selection of my favourite easy and reliable perennial wild flowers.
To cover an area of 3m2

General Height: 60cm.

Sow: April- June

Spring into Summer Flowering

• Cowslip March – May
• Common Birdsfoot Trefoil May – July
• Lady’s Bedstraw Late May – August
• Rough Hawksbit May – July
• Red Clover May – October
• Oxeye Daisy May – July
• Yellow Rattle May – July
• Meadow Buttercup May – July

Summer into Autumn Flowering

• Self Heal June – September
• Sorrel June – September
• Tufted Vetch June – September
• Common Knapweed June – September
• Common Toadflax July – October
• Musk Mallow July – October
• Ragged Robin July – September

 

Flack Family Farm:-

", in the Vermont hills, is a biodynamic farm using organic practices. Natural minerals and planned grazing with American Milking Devon cattle rejuvenate the soil, sequester carbon and yield nutrient dense foods and medicines including milk, grass fed meats, eggs, fermented vegetables (sauerkraut and kimchi / kim-chi), and herbal tinctures. We offer educational opportunities, farm visits, and seminars on nutrition, growing and preparing nutrient dense food, diversified farming and fermentation.
AMERICAN MILKING DEVON, breeding stock, semen (shipped directly to you), bulls, bred cows, exclusively grass fed beef.
GRASS-FED BEEF and PORK are raised naturally on pasture and sold in farm shop and through bulk order.
LACTO-FERMENTED VEGETABLES, traditional foods are produced on farm and sold in Vermont natural food stores and in farm shop (no mail order). Workshops on the lacto-fermentation process available.
MEDICINAL HERBS are propagated, harvested and tinctured. For herbal list, which includes Motherwort above.
FARM FRESH RAW MILK available on farm, call to get on schedule. We do not feed grain. We test our cows for several milk quality components, details available on request.
EDUCATION THROUGH HANDS-ON LEARNING, DISCUSSIONS, AND PRACTICE are the core of farm life. Doug Flack and farm family share their knowledge through farm work opportunities, classes and farm tours. Raw Milk Theater
THE FARM IS SEASONAL IN NATURE. Grazing, milking, birthing, planting and harvesting take place from March - November."

Edible Plants Club website

"has been created largely from the point of view of a plantsman interested in the many different resources available in the plant world, especially edible and medicinal plants.

What started me off on this path was reading Robert Harts book Forest Gardening and then Ken Fearns Plants for a Future and also Richard Mabeys 'Food For Free' along the way. This also led to me to change my career and become a gardener."

'Sort out your soil' - A practical guide to Green Manures, and Frequently Asked Questions from the Receptionist Myrtle of Cotswold Grass Seeds.

 

See Table 10 in Brown Wildflower Note Map Page. British Floral Sources of Importance to Honey Bees from
Plants and Honey Bees
An Introduction to Their Relationships
by David Aston and Sally Bucknall.
Printed by Northern Bee Books.
First published 2004, Reprinted 2009. ISBN 0-393-30879-0

 

Sea Wall Biodiversity Handbook by Tim Gardiner, Rob Pilcher and Max Wade
Whilst this handbook has been written primarily to inform those involved in managing vegetated sea walls, it is also intended to have wider appeal to anyone with an interest in sea walls and coastal ecology. Photographs are used to illustrate pertinent points, e.g. to show what good sea wall management may look like, as well as of certain species where this is thought to be helpful. The latter has been deliberately restricted as the handbook is not intended to be seen as a field guide to the habitats or species that can occur on sea walls.

 

Helping Earth's Sustainable Management with a Plant

"Alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels, nuclear waste, deforestation and nitrate chemical fertilizers need to be developed. Hemp could have a vital role to play in the development of friendly alternatives.

Energy production 
A report published by the FCDA of Europe outlines the Cannabis Biomass Energy Equation (CBEE), outlining a convincing case that hemp plants can be used to produce fuel energy CHEAPER per BtU than fossil fuels and uranium - WITHOUT PRODUCING GREENHOUSE GASES! Hemp plants have the highest known quantities of cellulose for annuals - with at least 4x (some suggest even 50-100x) the biomass potential of its closest rivals (cornstalks, sugarcane, kernaf and trees) (Omni, 1983). Biomass production still produces greenhouse gases, although the idea is that the excess of carbon dioxide will be used up by growing hemp plants - they are effective absorbers and thrive at high levels - Unlike fossil fuel energy which produces energy from plants which died millions of years ago.

On reading the report of the FCDA, Hon. Jonathon Porrit (ex-director of Friends of the Earth, currently on the Board of Forum for the Future) commented  'I DID enjoy reading it - the report should contribute much'. Three years later - authorities are still not taking the potential of this plant seriously. MAFF are currently engaging in supporting research into the biomass potential of poplar trees which they claim has the most scientific support for biomass energy production. H-E-M-P recommend use of the hemp plant if biomass energy production is to have any real impact in reducing carbon dioxide levels.

  IT'S SO PRODUCTIVE! 1 acre of hemp = 1,000 gallons of methanol.

  In fact, Henry Ford's first car ran on hemp-methanol! - and at just a fraction of the cost of petroleum alternatives. Alternatives to coal, fuel oil, acetone, ethyl, tar pitch and creosote can be derived - from this one single plant!

  As regards depletion of the ozone layer - hemp actually withstands UV radiation. It absorbs UV light, whilst resisting damage to itself and providing protection for everything else.

  Risk-free, pollution-free energy. No acid rain, and a reduction in airborne pollution of up to 80% ... There's further potential for the same in industry. "

 

Suppliers of British native-origin seeds and plants:-

"Flora locale maintains a list of suppliers who should be able to supply seeds and/or plants of known British (and sometimes known local) native-origin. Although not all their stock will necessarily be of British native-origin, they should be able to provide details of provenance on request.

View Flora locale's list of suppliers - follow the "Suppliers of native flora" link.

You may also wish to view the Really Wild Flowers site, which contains a wealth of information about creating habitats and cultivating native species."

 

British Native Plants List of Edible Plants:-

"I thought it would be useful to include native plant lists from different regions of the world. This list is from British Isles (including Ireland and the Channel Islands) and was compiled by Professor Clive Stace of the University of Leicester for the FFF conference on Native Plants held at the Linnean Society of London, June 1997. It can be found here at the postcode plants database."

 

Plants for moths (including larval food plants and adult nectar sources) from Gardens for Wildlife - Practical advice on how to attract wildlife to your garden by Martin Walters as an Aura Garden Guide. Published in 2007 - ISBN 978 1905765041:-
Angelica - Angelica archangelica
Barberry - Berberis vulgaris
Birch - Betula species
Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa
Bramble - Rubus species
Centaury - Centaurium species
Common knapweed - Centaurea nigra
Cowslip - Primula veris
Dandelion - Taraxacum offcinale
Dock - Rumex species
Evening primrose - Oenothera species
Foxglove - Digitalis purpurea
Goldenrod - Solidago canadensis and Solidago virgaurea
Harebell - Campanula rotundifolia
Heather - Calluna vulgaris
Hedge woundwort - Stachys sylvatica
Herb Bennet (wood avens) - Geum urbanum
Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum
Honeysuckle - Lonicera periclymenum
Lady' Bedstraw - Galium verum
Lemon balm - Melissa officinalis
Lime - Tilia species
Maiden pink - Dianthus deltoides

 

Marjoram - Origanum officinale
Meadow clary - Salvia pratensis
Meadowsweet - Filipendula ulmaria
Mullein - Verbascum species
Nettle - Urtica dioica and Urtica urens
Oak - Quercus robur and Quercus petraea
Ox-eye daisy - Leucanthemum vulgare
Plantain - Plantago species
Poplar (and aspen) - Populus species
Primrose - Primula vulgaris
Purple loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria
Ragged robin - Lychnis flos-cuculi
Red campion - Silene dioica
Red clover - Trifolium pratense
Red valerian - Centranthus ruber
Rock rose - Helianthemum species
Sea kale - Crambe maritima
Sweet rocket - Hesperis matronalis
Toadflax - Linaria species
Tobacco - Nicotiana species
Traveller's joy - Clematis vitalba
Viper's bugloss - Echium vulgare
White campion - Silene alba
Wild pansy - Viola tricolor
Willow - Salix species
Yarrow - Achillea millefolium
and a chapter on Planning the Wildlife Garden.

 

 

 

Alter-Natives Wholesale Nursery, Waipu, NZ is a wholesale nursery open to the public and trade. They grow 240 species of New Zealand Native plants for landscaping and revegetation in several sizes of tube, pot and bag. Their services include Landscape Design and Implementation as well as Revegetation Planting, together with Native Plants recommended for Effluent Fields.

The following is from their Information Sheet on "

Botanical Names Explained
It's a complex world out there and the botanists don't seem to make it any easier! And there is nothing more confusing than listening to a bunch of gardeners talk in streams of apparently meaningless gobbledy-gook. Who do they think they are?
But hold on a minute, don't put it down to garden snobbery. Botanical names give us clues about plants, their relatives, their cultural needs and they are well worth learning.

Botanical, Latin or Scientific Names?
All plants have a unique name and this is often called the scientific name, botanical or the 'Latin name' as many are based on Latin. Many botanical names are derived from Greek, a persons name (the discoverer, sponsor or someone-else altogether!), are descriptive or give the place of origin of the plant. For this reason we prefer to use the term 'botanical name' rather than 'Latin name'.
The system we use today is based on that developed by Linneaus, a Swedish naturalist, developed in the 18th century. Botanical names all have two main parts: a generic or family name and a specific or species name. Thus, the human world we have the Brown family, and we have John, Jane and Mary Brown within that. In the plant world we have the celmisia family, Celmisia, and its member Celmisia semicordata, Celmisia spectabilis, etc.
Plants have names, just like people. The difference between the human naming convention and that of plants is that each pant generic or family name occurs only once. Specific names may occur a number of times (e.g. reptans or alba) but, coupled with the generic name, each plant has a unique name. Think of all the New Zealand plants that are Something haastii or Something chathamica!

Why Not Common Names? Many gardeners and most plant nurseries prefer botanical names as they avoid the confusion that common names can cause. Common names can be very local, some plants don't have a common name, and others have more than one.
More than one plant has the same common name; in the UK an 'Ash' is actually a Fraxinus while in the USA it is really a Sorbus; and an Aconite can be the late summer flowering, deep blue flowered perennial Aconitum or the tiny winter flowering bulb Eranthis hyemalis. In NZ a ‘Mingimingi’ can be either Coprosma propingqua, Cyathodes juniperina or Cyathodes robusta which also comes with either a white fruit or a red fruit.
And then there are the plants that have more than one common name; the climbing pest Clematis vitalba is known as Old Man's Beard and Traveller's Joy; Bergamont and Bee's Balm are both Monarda didyma; and Erythronium as Trout Lilies and Dogs Tooth Violets.

Parts of Botanical Names

The way the name is built up is based on Latin grammar rules. Each plant family name (eg. 'Cordyline') is a noun and has a gender (i.e. is male or female). Species within each family are adjectives ('australis', 'indivisa', etc.).
Botanical names are usually written in italics as in Cordyline indivisa.
Sometimes, perhaps too often for gardeners' liking, the scientists will change a botanical name and thus we get Brachyglottis monroi (syn. Senecio monroi) where the name in brackets is the previous or, occasionally, less well-known name. This is also known as the 'synonym'.
The great value in understanding the botanical name comes from following the family trees through and using the other, descriptive clues in the name. Celmisia spectabilis is a very showy or spectacular celmisia, Coprosma prostrata and Cotoneaster horizontalis are prostrate growers, and Cercis chinensis comes from China and Cercis canadensis from Canada; Geum montanum comes from the mountains; Prunus autumnalis flowers in the autumn.
So while sometimes it does seem as if 'It's all Greek to me!', it really is worth finding out the botanical name.
Using the botanical rather than a common name is not garden snobbery. It is simple good sense, and it saves the confusion common names can cause, unless it is as unpronounceable as Paeonia mlokosewitschii, named for Frederich Mlokosewitch who found it, but known almost universally as 'Molly the Witch'.

The Structure of Plant Families
Plant Orders
A step up from the botanical name we have plant orders. These are larger families of plants.
A plant order is a family of different genera that are sufficiently similar, e.g. Magnoliaceae or Ranunculaceae are plant orders that contain many different genera that share a key characteristic(s).
The plant order is not included in the botanical name, except in scientific situations or in gardening textbooks and plant dictionaries where it gives us clues that clematis, ranunculus and hellebores, all members of Ranunculaceae, have something in common.

  • Genera
  • The genera or genus a plant family such as the New Zealand family of pohutukawa and rata trees is Metrosideros, and within this genus we find Metrosideros excelsa, Metrosideros umbellata, Metrosideros robusta, etc
  • Species
  • A species is those plants that are the same and produce viable offspring. Plants within a species can vary in small ways, such as differences leaf colouration resulting from environment, climate and soil. And, so, within species you can have subspecies, varieties, cultivars and hybrids.
  • Variety
  • Differences in climate, soils, and aspect can cause these differences to be sufficiently distinct that botanists will distinguish between different varieties (often shown as 'var.') within a species. Clianthus puniceus var. maximus differs from the so-called 'typical' form Clianthus puniceus.
  • Subspecies
  • When there is no overlap in the geographical distribution of the plants, the variety may be called a subspecies (often shown as 'ssp.', as in Crocus biflorus ssp. crewei). These are still able to produce offspring when two subspecies within the same plant species are brought together.
  • Cultivars
  • Sometimes gardeners may select a particular plant because of leaf colour form or flower. This selection is still genetically identical to these within the species and must be propagated vegetatively (cuttings, division etc) to continue the desired attribute, as seed grown progeny may not 'come true', that is, they may not carry the particular attribute sought.
  • These plants are called cultivars and the cultivar name is shown in inverted commas, e.g. Astelia chathamica 'Silver Spear'.
  • Hybrids
  • Where different species within a family or different families produce offspring, the new plants are called hybrids. Hellebores are very promiscuous in this way. Apart from physically separating parent plants or hand pollinating it is all too easy to end up with hybrids rather than the species plants you may covet.
  • These plants are shown as a 'cross' such as Corokia x virgata 'Bronze King', where virgata is not a species but a hybrid between two of the Hamamelis species. Camellia x williamsii 'Donation' is a hybrid where Camellia williamsii is known to be a parent. Hybrids can also be 'intersectional hybrids', that is, they occur between different genera as in x Cupressocyparis, a cross between Chamaecyparis and Cupressus.

Some Botanical Terms Explained

The descriptive clues in botanical names are rewarding if you translate or understand the terms themselves.
Some names relate to flower colour, others to habit, and others to origin.
Some of the most common terms are listed here, as well as some specially New Zealand botanical terms.

  • A
  • • alba white
    • albicans becoming white
    • albiflorus white flower
    • alpina alpine
    • angustifolius narrow leaved
    • apetala has no petals
    • arachnoides spider or spider webs e.g. Sempervivium arachnoideum, the house leek has spider web like appearance
    • arboreus or aborescens tree like appearance
    • arenaria of sand, referring to plants from sandy places
    • argentea or argyraea silver or silvery
    • atro dark coloured as in 'atropurpureum'
    • attenuata narrows to a point
    • aurantica orange
    • aurea or aureus gold or golden
    • australis southern
    • azurea azure or sky blue
  • B
  • • banksii named for Sir Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's voyages
    • bellidioides daisy-like appearance, referring to bellis, the daisy
    • bicolour two coloured
    • bidwillii named for John Bidwill, early New Zealand alpine plant enthusiast
    • Brachyglottis short tongued, referring to the short ray florets
    • buchananii named for John Buchanan, early New Zealand botanist
  • C
  • • caerulea dark blue
    • caerulecens bluish, blue tinged
    • campanulatus bell shaped
    • canadensis of Canada or North-eastern America
    • canina of dogs, usually means inferior plant (the Romans were not dog-lovers!)
    • cardinalis scarlet, cardinal red
    • carnea deep pink
    • cataria of cats, eg Nepeta cataria, catmint
    • carractae of waterfalls
    • chathamicus/chathamica of the Chatham Islands
    • chinensis of China
    • chlorantha green flowered
    • cinerea ash colour, greyish
    • coccineum scarlet
    • columaris columnar
    • colensoi named for William Colenso, early botanist
    • confertiflora flowers that are crowded together
    • cordata heart shaped
    • crassifolius/crassifolia/crassifolium with thick leaves
    • cunnihamii named for Allan Cunningham, early botanist
  • D
  • • decora beautiful
    • delayavi for Abbe Jean Marie Delavay missionary and collector
    • dieffenbachii for Dr Ernst Dieffenbach, naturalist
    • discolor two different colours
    • dissecta deeply cut, usually of a leaf
    • domestica cultivated
    • davidii for Pere Arman David, missionary plant collector
    • Dracanena female dragon
  • E
  • • Echinops a hedgehog, spiky
    • Echium vipers ( a snake)
    • Erodium heron's bill, referring to the shape of the seedpods
    • excelsa/excelsum/excelsus tall
    • eximia exceptional
  • F
  • • fibrosa fibrous
    • flava clear yellow
    • florida flowering
    • -florus of flowers
    • foetidus smelling, stinking
    • -folius of leaves
    • forestii for George Forest, Scottish plant collector
    • fragrans/fragrantissima fragrant
    • frutcosa shrubby
    • fulvida tawny coloured
  • H
  • • haastii for Julius von Haast, explorer
    • hastata spear shaped
    • hookeri for Sir William or Sir Joseph Hooker, directors of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
    • hortensia of gardens
    • horizontalis flat, horizontal
    • humilis low growing
  • G
  • • Geranium crane's bill, referring to the shape of the seedpods
    • gracilis graceful
    • graminea grass-like
  • I
  • • ilicifolia holly-like (from Ilex or Holly)
    • incana grey
    • indica of India
    • insignis notable
    • -issima very (as in 'bellissima')
    • isophylla equal sized leaves
    • ixioides ixia like
  • J
  • • japonica of Japan
    • jucundum attractive example
  • K
  • • kirkii for Thomas Kirk, botanist
  • L
  • • laetus/laetum milky
    • latifolius/latifolia broad leaved
    • lessonii/lessoniana for Pierre Lesson surgeon and botanist
    • lineata striped, with lines
    • lucida/lucens shining, bright
    • lutea yellow
    • lutescens becoming yellow
    • lyallii for David Lyall, surgeon
  • M
  • • macrantha having large flowers
    • marcrocarpa having large fruit
    • marcophylla having large leaves
    • meleagris spotted like a guinea fowl as in Fritillaria meleagris
    • melissa honey bee
    • microphylla very small leaved
    • monroi for Sir David Monro, plant collector
    • montana/montanum of the mountains
    • moschatum musky scented
    • myosotis mouse's ear
  • N
  • • nigra black
    • novae-zelandiae of New Zealand
  • O
  • • officinalis sold as a herb
    • orientalis eastern
  • P
  • • paniculata having flowers in panicles
    • Pelargonium stork's bill, referring to the shape of the seedpods
    • petriei for Donald Petrie, plant collector
    • praecox early, of flowering
    • procumbens prostrate
    • procurrens spreading
    • prolifera prolific or free flowering
    • prostrata prostrate or lying on the ground
    • pumila/pumilo dwarf
    • purpurea purple (Echinea purpurea)
    • purpurascens purplish, tinged purple
  • R
  • • Ranunculus frog, because both like marshy, boggy ground
    • recta upright
    • reflexa bent backwards
    • reptans or repens creeping
    • richardii for Achille Richard, French botanist
    • rigens/rigida rigid or stiff habit
    • roseum rose colour
    • rotundata rounded
    • rotundifolia having round-shaped leaves
    • rubra/rubrum red
    • rugosa/rugosum wrinkled
    • rupestris growing in rocks
  • S
  • • salicina/salicifolia willow like
    • sanguinea blood red
    • scandens climbing
    • serotina late flowering or late ripening
    • serpens creeping
    • spictata in spikes
    • stans/stricta erect or upright
    • supine supine or prostrate
  • T
  • • trigida spotted like a tiger
  • U
  • • umbellatus flowers appearing to be in umbels
    • ursinum a bear, referring to shaggy appearance
  • V
  • • vernus of spring
    • viridis/virens green
    • viridfolius green leaved
    • versicolor multi coloured
    • vulgaris common
  • Z
  • • Zebrina zebra, referring to the stripes

Botanical Terms - New Zealand Plant Names

New Zealand plants are special. Many are unique to our island country and found nowhere else in the world.
The descriptive clues in botanical names are rewarding if you translate or understand the terms themselves. The names of our plants reflect their discoverers, place of origin and our history.

  • A
  • • Aciphylla the Spaniard for the sharp, needle leaves
    • Agathis the kauri, from agathis 'ball of thread' for the distinctive cones
    • Arthropodium the rengarenga lily, from 'arthro' a joint and 'podion' stalk (has jointed pedicels)
    • Astelia stem-less
    • australis southern, as in Cordyline australis
  • B
  • • banksii named for Sir Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's voyages
    • bidwillii named for John Bidwill, early New Zealand alpine plant enthusiast
    • buchananii named for John Buchanan, early New Zealand botanist
  • C
  • • Celmisia mountain daisies, after Celmisios in Greek mythology
    • chathamicus/chathamica of the Chatham Islands
    • Clianthus kaka beak, from 'kleos' glory and 'anthos' flower for the distinctive flowers
    • colensoi named for William Colenso, early botanist
    • Coprosma smelling of manure
    • Cordyline the cabbage tree, meaning a club as the large and fleshy roots resemble
    • Corokia from the Maori name 'Korokio'
    • cunnihamii named for Allan Cunningham, early botanist
  • D
  • • Dicksonia the tree fern, for James Dickson a Scottish nurseryman and naturalist
    • dieffenbachii for Dr Ernst Dieffenbach, naturalist
    • Dracophyllum the grass trees, from 'draco' dragon and 'phyllum' leaf
  • G
  • • Griselinia the broadleaf, for Franseco Griselini, naturalist
  • H
  • • haastii for Julius von Haast, explorer
    • Hebe for the Greek Goddess of youth 'Hebe'
    • Hoheria for the Moari name 'Houhere'
    • hookeri for Sir William or Sir Joseph Hooker, directors of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
  • K
  • • kirkii for Thomas Kirk, early botanist
  • L
  • • Leptospermum the manuka, 'leptos' or slender and ' sperma' or seed for the narrow seeds
    • lessonii/lessoniana for Pierre Lesson, surgeon and botanist
    • lyallii for David Lyall, surgeon
  • M
  • • Metrosideros the rata and pohutukawa for their very hard wood; 'metra' heartwood and 'sideros' iron hard
    • monroi for Sir David Monro, plant collector
    • Muehlenbeckia after Muehlenbeck, a French physician and botanist
    • Myosotidium the Chatham Island Forget-me-not, for Myosotis the European forget- me-not
  • N
  • • Nothofagus native beech, from 'nothos' false and 'fagus' the beech
    • novae-zelandiae meaning 'of New Zealand'
  • O
  • • Olearia because it resembles an olive tree (Olea)
  • P
    • Pachystegia the Marlborough Rock Daisy, from 'pakys' or thick for the thick leaves
    • Phormium New Zealand flax, from 'phormoin' or a mat, a reference to the traditional Maori weaving of flax and flax fibres
    • Pittosporum for the sticky seeds, as 'pitta' means pitch or tar and 'sporum' seeds
    • Plagianthus 'plagios' oblique and 'anthhos' flower for the asymmetrical flowers
    • Podocarpus the totara, from 'podos' foot and 'karpos' fruit for the stalked fruit
    • Pseudopanax lancewoods and the five-finger, from 'pseudo' false and 'panax' a related genus
  • R
    • richardii for Achille Richard, French botanist
  • S
    • sinclairii Andrew Sinclair an early plant collector
    • solandri Daniel Solander botanist on the Cook voyages
    • Sophora the kowhai, from 'sophera' the Arabic name for a tree with pea shaped flowers
  • T
    • traversii William Travers early plant collector, lawyer and politician
  • W
    • williamsii for William Williams, Bishop of Waiapu in the nineteenth century
  • X
  • • Xeronema Poor Knights Lily, from 'xeros' dry
  • "

and Information Sheet on:-
The way the Botanical name is built up is based on Latin grammar rules. Each plant family name (eg. 'Cordyline') is a noun and has a gender (i.e. is male or female). Species within each family are adjectives ('australis', 'indivisa', etc.).
Some Botanical Terms Explained
The descriptive clues in botanical names are rewarding if you translate or understand the terms themselves. Some names relate to flower colour, others to habit, and others to origin. Like
. macrantha having large flowers
 

 

 

Bee-Pollinated Bloom Plant Index.
So, how can I feed the bees if I have no soil in my garden?

  • You could start with a sedum roof covering for a DIY green roof on a flat roof of a house, garage, carport, on a roof which is not more than 20 degrees from horizontal, or on top of hardstanding which is at ground level. Biodiverse mats could be used instead of sedum mats for the above areasto attract bees.
  • Then, there is no reason why you could not have Green Walls as well.

You could then progress to Rootop Gardens, which may require a further strengthening of the supporting structure to carry the potential extra weight:-

If you do not fancy putting plants on the walls or your roof, then you could have a series of window box gardens and Balcony gardens using self-watering planters and boxes from Amberol.

If you have the room in the hardstanding round your property then why not use a series of Promenade Self-Watering Planters from Amberol. These are easy to work on - even if you are in a wheelchair or otherwise infirm - and they could still then provide flowers for the bees to use.

"What do bees need?

  • Undisturbed nesting sites
  • Solitary bees may burrow into the ground, into mortar in brick and stonework, or use hollow bramble stems, or beetle borings in rotten wood.
  • Increasingly, artificial purpose-built 'homes' are being provided by conservation minded people.
  • Social bees, such as bumblebees, may construct their nests in old mouse, vole and mole holes; under hedge vegetation; beneath moss or grass tussocks, and under piles of cut vegetation.
  • Honey bees will use beehives, cavities in old trees or walls, roof spaces and chimneys.
  • Locations where the queen bumblebees can over-winter, dry and undisturbed.
  • Consistent supplies of pollen and nectar sources from early spring to late autumn.
    The Beekeeper's Garden by Hooper and Taylor - Published by Alphabooks Ltd., in 1988 - ISBN 0-7136-3023-X - provides comprehensive information on suitable plants, also useful is the classic text of
    Plants and Beekeeping by Howes, F.N, which was originally published prior to 1923 and a reproduction by Ulan Press and printed by Amazon.co.uk, Ltd was produced this century.
  • Unpolluted water." from
    Plants and Honey Bees
    An Introduction to Their Relationships
    by David Aston and Sally Bucknall.
    Printed by Northern Bee Books.
    First published 2004, Reprinted 2009. ISBN 0-393-30879-0

The Potential Impact of Global Warming
The potential impact of global warming on UK gardens has been considered in the report 'Gardening in the Global Greenhouse, the impacts of climate change on gardens in the UK', published in November 2002 under the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). A number of scenarios were described, together with the likely changes in garden styles caused by climatic changes. These could have a significant effect on the availability and timing of bee forage. The following is from its conclusions:-

  • The role of gardens and parks as innumerable components in a green web, supporting and at times replacing the fragile network of natural ecosystems, has been little explored in this report. However, these millions of landscapes, large and small, will have a vital role to play in reinforcing a system of ecological corridors through which wildlife can migrate in response to climate change.

Besides the plants in the British Floral Sources of importance to Honey Bees as shown in Table 10 below:-

 

 

Table 10. British Floral Sources of Importance to Honey Bees from
Plants and Honey Bees
An Introduction to Their Relationships
by David Aston and Sally Bucknall.
Printed by Northern Bee Books.
First published 2004, Reprinted 2009. ISBN 0-393-30879-0

Comment

Plant Name

Common Name

Feb-Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep-Oct

Pollen source only

 

Alder

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almond

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alyssum

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchusa

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Apple

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arabis

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Pollen source only

 

Ash

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aubretia

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Crocus

 

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

Balsam

 

 

 

 

 

000

000

Pollen source only

 

Beech

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Bell Heather

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

Berberis

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bergamot

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Billberry

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bindweed

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Pollen source only

 

Birch

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird's-foot-trefoil

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Blackberry

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

Blackthorn

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluebell

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Borage

 

 

 

 

000

000

000

 

 

Brassicas

 

 

000

000

000

000

 

 

 

Broom

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buttercup

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Campanula

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

Cat-mint

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Ceanothus

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celandine

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Cherry

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crab apple

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crane's-bill

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

 

Crocus

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currants

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Damson

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Dandelion

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

White dead-nettle regualarly flowers thoughout winter months.

 

Dead-nettle

000

 

000

000

000

 

 

 

 

Doronicum

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dwarf gorse

 

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Elm

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Escallonia

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Fennel

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Field bean

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Figwort

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Forget-me-not

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuschia

 

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Golden rod

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Gooseberry

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorse

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Hawthorn

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hazel

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hogweed

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Holly

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hollyhock

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Horse-chestnut

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant. Ivy can produce a useful supply of nectar from October until the first frosts.

 

Ivy

 

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

Jacob's-ladder

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Knapweed

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Laurel

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lavender

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Lime

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Ling Heather

 

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Lucerne

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Mallow

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Maple

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marjoram

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

Pollen source only

 

Meadow-sweet

 

 

 

000

000

000

 

 

 

Michaelmas daisy

 

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Mint

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Mullein

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Mustard

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Oak

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Oil-seed rape autumn sown

 

000

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Oil-seed rape spring sown

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

 

Onion

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Pear

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Phacelia

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

 

Plantain

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Plum

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Pollen source only

 

Poppy

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Privet

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Prunus

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purple-lossestrife

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Pyracantha

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Ragwort

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Raspberry

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Red clover

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Robinia

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Pollen source only

 

Rock-rose

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Sage

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

Scabious

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

In coastal regions sea lavander will yield good nectar producing a light coloured honey.

 

Sea-lavender

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Snowdrop

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunflower

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Sweet Chestnut

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Sycamore

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thistle

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Thrift

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thyme

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Toadflax

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Traveller's joy

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Veronica

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

Vetch

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Violet

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viper's bugloss

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Virginia creeper

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Wallflower

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

White bryony

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

White clover

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

Pollen source only

 

Wild rose

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

Willow

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major bee plant, widespread or locally significant

 

Willowherb

 

 

 

 

000

000

 

 

 

Winter aconite

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter heaths

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wood anemone

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wood sage

 

 

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

Yellow melilot

 

 

 

000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and
Bee Pollinated Plants for Hay Fever Sufferers
the 264 bee-pollinated plants in Bee-Pollinated Bloom Plant Index are in addition to the bee-pollinated plants shown as thumbnails in the pages of this Gallery of 12 Flower Colours per month FROM the Circular Colour Wheel below.

Click on the OOO in the Index below to link to those bee-pollinated plants of that flower colour in that month or any of
ACER (Deciduous/Evergreen Shrub/Tree) in March-April
CHAENOMELES SPECIOSA (Herbaceous Perennial) in March-May
CROCUS (Bulb) in September-April
CYDONIA OBLONGA (Deciduous Shrub) in April-June
DAFFODIL (Bulb) in December-May
DAHLIA (Bulb) in June-November
DUTCH HYACINTH (Bulb) in March-April
HEATHERS (Evergreen Shrub) in every month
HEDERA HELIX (Evergreen Climber) in September-November as last major source of nectar and pollen in the year
HELIANTHEMUM (Deciduous Shrub) in June-August - Pollen only collected when the flowers open during sunny weather
HELENIUM (Herbaceous Perennial) in June-October
HELLEBORUS (Herbaceous Perennial) in January-March
HEUCHERA (Evergreen Perennial) in May-September
HIBISCUS (Deciduous Shrub) in August-September
ILEX (Evergreen Tree) in May-June
LAVANDULA (Annual, Herbaceous Perennial or Shrub) in June-July
LAVATERA (Annual, Biennial, or Herbaceous Perennial) in May-August
LEPTOSIPHON (Annual) in June-August
MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA (Evergreen Tree) in August-September
MALVA SYLVESTRIS (Biennial) in June-Septemberr
MENTHA (Herb) in July-August
NEMOPHILA (Annual) in April-June
NIGELLA (Annual) in July-September
PHILADELPHUS species only with single flowers (Shrub) in June
POLEMONIUM (Herbaceous Perennial) in April-June
PRUNUS CERASIFERA (Deciduous Tree) in February-March
PRUNUS LAUROCERASUS (Evergreen Shrub) in April-June
PYRACANTHA COCCINEA (Evergreen Shrub) in May-June
ROSES (Deciduous Shrub/Climber) in June-October
RUBUS IDAEUS (Raspberry) (Soft Fruit) in May-June
SALVIA SUPERBA (Herbaceous Perennial) in June-September - no bee garden should be without this plant - for those plants.

Enumber indicates Empty Index Page.
Bottom row of Grey is Unusual or Multi-Coloured Flower Colour.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

OOO E1.

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Blue

OOO

OOO
E11.

OOO
E12.

OOO E13.

OOO
E14.

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Mauve

OOO

OOO

OOO
E24.

OOO
E25.

OOO
E26.

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Purple

OOO
E34.

OOO
E35.

OOO
E36.

OOO
E37

OOO
E38

OOO

OOO
E40

OOO
E41

OOO
E42

OOO

OOO

OOO
Brown

OOO

OOO
E47

OOO
E48

OOO
E49

OOO
E50

OOO
E51

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Cream

OOO
E58

OOO
E59

OOO
E60

OOO
E61

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Green

OOO

OOO
E71

OOO
E72

OOO
E73

OOO
E74

OOO
E75

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
E80

OOO
E81Orange

OOO
E82

OOO
E83

OOO
E84

OOO
E85

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Pink

OOO

OOO
E95

OOO
E96

OOO
E97

OOO
E98

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Red

OOO

OOO
E107

OOO
E108

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
White

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Yellow

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
E133

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO

OOO
Unusual

OOO

OOO
E143

OOO
E144

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bulb and Perennial Height from Text Border

Brown = 0-12 inches (0-30 cms)

Blue = 12-24 inches (30-60 cms)

Green = 24-36 inches (60-90 cms)

Red = 36-72 inches (90- 180 cms)

Black = 72+ inches (180+ cms)

Shrub Height from Text Border

Brown = 0-12 inches (0-30 cms)

Blue = 12-36 inches (30-90 cms)

Green = 36-60 inches (90- 150 cms)

Red = 60-120 inches (150- 300 cms)

Black = 120+ inches (300+ cms)

Tree Height from Text Border

Brown = 0-240 inches (0- 600 cms)

Blue = 240- 480 inches (600- 1200 cms)

Green = 480+ inches (1200 + cms)

Red = Potted

Black = Use in Small Garden

Climber Height from Text Border

 

Blue = 0-36 inches (0-90 cms)

Green = 36-120 inches (90-300 cms)

Red = 120+ inches (300+ cms)

 

Bamboo, Bedding, Conifer, Fern, Grass, Herb, Rhododendron, Rose, Soft Fruit, Top Fruit, Vegetable and Wildflower Height from Text Border

Blue = 0-24 inches (0-60 cms)

Green = 24-72 inches (60- 180 cms)

Red = 72+ inches (180+ cms)

 

Plant Soil Moisture from Text Background

Wet Soil

Moist Soil

 

Dry Soil

 

What and why are Beebombs?  

  • 97% of native British Wildflower habitat has been lost since World War 2. 
  • Wildflower habitats are where bees and butterflies make their lives.
  • With Beebombs you can re-create these lost habitats and to help bring back the bees.
  • Beebombs need no gardening skill and can be scattered straight onto open ground at any time of the year. 
  • Once scattered, Beebombs just need lots of water, sun and time. Wildflowers are hardy and adaptable but slow growers. This means that they can be out-competed by faster growing grasses and perennial weeds at the critical early stages, so straight onto soil is best if possible. 
  • The soil will help your Beebombs germinate and the clay will protect them as they dissipate.
  • Lots of sun and rain is of course important, as is time. 
  • Wildflowers are a little slower growers than many imported plants and flowers. Some will flower in the first year but most will not come out until the 2nd year.