Wild Flowers of Leazes Park

Alliaria petiolata ' This herbe is not much used in medicine but some do use with meates instead of garlyke ' Rembert Dodoens Flemish physician and botanist 1517-1585 1. Garlic mustard or  'Jack-by-the-hedge' - by a hedge. One of the more striking and statuesque flowers of late spring is Garlic Mustard or Alliaria petiolata . It forms impressive and hard to miss banks of flowers in many parts of Leazes Park. Historically, garlic mustard has gone by a wide variety of names including garlic wort, poor man's mustard, poor man's treacle and Jack-by-the-hedge. You only have to crush one of the leaves between your fingers to get an idea where these names come from. It has a rather pungent and arresting odour. You can use it cooking but if you do I would not recommend harvesting the leaves from Leazes Park; you never know what those dogs were doing before you got to the plant. Garlic mustard belongs to the cabbage family or Brassicaceae. The general fe...

Ranunculus bulbosus A little yellow buttercup Stood laughing in the sun; The grass all green around it The summer just begun: Anon  1. Bulbous buttercups seem to glow like lanterns in the early morning sun. A previous blogpost gave a simple key for separating out the three most common species of Buttercup;  bulbous buttercup ( Ranunculus bulbosus ), meadow buttercup ( Ranunculus acris ) and creeping buttercup ( Ranuculus repens ).  You can find it here .  T he bulbous buttercup is the first to get going and has a short flowering season after which meadow and creeping buttercup predominate. For that reason, if you want to see bulbous buttercup you need to get out soon.  Buttercups belong to genus Ranunculus which is part of the Ranunculaceae family. The Ranunculaceae family is phylogenetically old  in the sense that it diverged from the main stem in the far distant past and in some respects, the buttercup flowers can be considered 'primitiv...

Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentatum Yellow archangel flowers and leaves The third of our trio of dead-nettles does not exactly belong here because this blog is about wild flowers. Although yellow archangel is undoubtedly a wild flower, the subspecies to be found in Leazes Park is a garden escapee Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp.argentatum . It is characterised by silvery patches on the leaves and a more spreading habit. Some people view it as an invasive species that should be dug up. It is certainly doing a good job of taking over some corners of the park so perhaps they are right. The superior ground covering ability that appealed to gardeners could become a problem in this setting.  Nonetheless it has most of the features of its wild cousin so it will be discussed here. The generic features of dead-nettle have been described in the blog post describing red dead-nettle . Yellow archangel conforms to that dead-nettle body plan and is easily distinguished from white dead net...

Lamium album The Dead Nettle is a clear case of familiarity breeding contempt. Were it a rare plant just introduced to our notice, its pairs of handsome leaves and quaint hooded flowers, standing out so bravely in white tiers up the square stalks would be thought by us a marvel....... G. Clarke Nuttall. Wild Flowers as the Grow. 1912 A clump of white dead-nettles by a tree The general features of dead-nettles were discussed in the last blog about red dead-nettle . The name comes from their resemblance to the true or stinging nettle which is, in fact, in a different family. Perhaps this similarity in appearance is a form of mimicry so that dead-nettles gains some of the respect that is normally reserved for stinging nettles. It certainly worked that way for me when I was a child. White dead-nettle conforms to the standard features of dead-nettles in general. There is a square stem that is slightly reinforced at the four corners. The leaves are opposite and s...

Lamium purpureum A dull looking weed, perhaps, but of infinite interest: lacking, no doubt in beauty, but rich in skilful plans, the Red Dead Nettle challenges us to ignore it at our loss. G Clarke Nuttall. Wild Flowers As They Grow 1912 Red dead-nettle  Dead-nettles Dead-nettles belong to the family Lamiaceae (old name Labiateae). Dead-nettle is an appropriate name because the leaves look distinctly 'nettley' and when I was a child I treated dead-nettles with the same suspicion I treated nettles. The precautionary principle applied and if a ball went into nettles or dead-nettles someone else could go and get it. The general features of dead-nettles are square stems that are as easily felt as seen. The leaves are simple and oppositely arranged. The leaf margins are toothed resulting in a nettle-like appearance. Usually, successive pairs of leaves are at right angles to each other up the stem (decurrent). The flowers are arranged in successive whorls up the stem ...

Caltha palustris Winking Marybuds begin  To ope their golden eyes William Shakespeare, Cymbeline - date uncertain 1. Marsh-marigold flowers  Marsh-marigolds ( Caltha palustris ) can be found, as the name suggests, in marshy areas. That means two places in Leazes Park; first, in the floating beds at the side of the lake and second, in early spring, a few usually pop up in the marshy area just north of the tennis courts. Historically marsh marigold has gone by a variety of names including kingcups and in the middle ages, because of a supposed association with the Virgin Mary, they were called marybuds or Mary-gold. Perhaps my favourite old name is 'mare-blob' which may be derived from 'mere-blob' an allusion to its habitat or just a corruption of the name 'marybud'. Perhaps the most poetic name of all though is the Italian folk name 'Spose di Sole' or 'Bride of the Sun' and when you see its vivid yellow flowers shining out from the ...

And a note on glossy yellow petals............ The Ranunculaceae are a large family with about 6000 members across the world. The genus Ranunculus that comprises the buttercups has 600 members worldwide but only 20 occur in the UK. It makes it easier, from the point of view of plant ID, that there are only three kinds of buttercup to be found in Leazes Park. So as long as you can recognize a buttercup from the shiny yellow petals, recognising which species you are looking at isn't too difficult. The three types of buttercup are bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus , meadow buttercup  Ranunculus acris , and Creeping Buttercup Ranunculus repens.  It also helps that bulbous buttercup gets going early which means that the buttercups we see in early spring are almost certainly of that kind. However, a more formal system of ID is useful for later in the season. On the basis of four characteristics (three would be sufficient), you can easily separate out the different...

You would think some old miser had stumbled while carrying away a sackful of hoarded sovereigns and had sprawled the sacks contents to run like spilt and spinning coins from the sack's mouth. Wild Flowers As They Grow - 1912 H Essenhigh Corke, G Clarke Nuttall One of the pleasures of regular walks in the park is seeing the leaves emerge and trying to work out what flowers will emerge in the days or weeks to come. That approach doesn't quite work with Coltsfoot ( Tussilago farfara ) because, unusually, the flower precedes the appearance of the leaves and the leaves persist long after the flowers have disappeared. This is the reason for its other name - 'son before father'. Some ancient writers, Pliny for example, didn't even connect the leaves with the flowers. Coltsfoot  Tussilago farfara  is a common early spring plant. It doesn't last long and sets seed quickly so it is best to enjoy it while it is around.  The drooping head of the flower ...