Wild Flowers of Leazes Park

Anthriscus sylvestris I have thought good to call Hedge or Field Parsley (because it growes upon hedges and in plowed fields very plentifully everywhere) Gerard Sixteenth Century on 'Bastard Parsleys' Clusters of white lacey flowers along roadsides, canal-sides and parks are a feature of late spring. Although you can occasionally find sickly looking hogweed trying to flower, even in January, I have never seen it at full height until much later in the year. This means that cow parsley is the first member of the Apiaceae to really get going and for that reason it will be discussed first. Banks of cow parsley are a feature of late spring Not everybody likes cow-parsley and an article in the Independent called cow parsley ' the countryside killer ' on account of its overabundance in our country lanes. In over-fertile soils, along with nettles and bramble, cow parsley can out-compete other flowers and in doing so reduce overall plant diversity. There is good evi...

Repetition is the essence of the plant Theophrastus 372-287BC This post will review a family, several members of which will be putting in an appearance in the park over the next few weeks. The Apiaceae is one of the most distinctive of all plant families and its members were the first to be lumped together into a distinct grouping as long ago as the end of the 16th century. This was on account of the shape of the inflorescence called an umbel which in turn gave rise to the old family name the Umbelliferae. That family name has gone, at least in part, because some flowers from other families also have umbels. The members of the Apiaceae that we will discuss over the coming weeks are cow parsley  Anthriscus sylvestris , hogweed  Heracleum sphondylium  and finally my favourite wild carrot  Daucus carota . Habit Members of this family often have stout stems that are ridged and hollow, a recipe that gives them the strength and rigidity that can allow members ...

Hyacinthoides non-scripta Saphire Queen of the mid-May; And every leave and every flower Pearled with the self same shower. Keats 'Fancy' 1918 Drifts of bluebells in the dappled light under the trees If you were looking for a quintessentially British flower, perhaps the bluebell ( Hyacinthoides non-scripta ) would be it. Bluebells do occur in other countries but bluebell woods carpeted with the flowers are a rather British thing. Although you don't see magnificent drifts of bluebells in Leazes Park there are enough of them to light up a walk and make it worth taking time to stoop down and examine the flowers and provided COVID-19 hasn't taken away your sense of smell have a good old sniff. Taxonomy Bluebells belong to the Liliaceae or Lily family which are monocotyledons (abbreviated to monocots). Monocots, when they emerge from the seed, have a single cotyledon or embryonic leaf, as opposed to dicotyledons (dicots) that have two.  Mature monocots ...

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...