A WALK IN THE WET

A walk on a showery day finds some flowers a little bedraggled but flowers and insects eagerly respond to sunny intervals

The common Creeping Thistle, Cirsium arvense, is a profuse plant spreading by thistle-down-borne seeds and by creeping underground roots.

The seeding heads of grasses are bent over with the wet in this image of Thistle and Agimony flowers.

Thistles are rich in nectar, which a variety of insects guzzle.  The leaves too are eaten by Painted Lady butterfly caterpillars when they arrive.

The related knapweeds are also rather bedraggled after rain.

But a colourful highlight in the damp grass nonetheless.

The striking colours of Woody Nightshade or Bittersweet are much smaller.  The plant scrambles over other plants as the stem is too floppy to stand upright.

Another profuse and colourful plant in flower is the Greater Willowherb  (Epilobium hirsutum) or Great Hairy Willowherb also known as Codlins and Cream.  I looked up 'codlin' and the closest I can get is 'codling' which can mean a sort of hard apple.

The magenta coloured petals, allegedly the same colour as a codlin apple's flesh when it is cut open, surround a white cross, which is the stigma.

Even Gatekeeper butterflies were out and about once the rain stopped.: both male . . . . 

. . . . .and female

And last on my wet walk, this crop of Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium) provided a splash of colour.

The tall flower spikes in an ever-spreading gang.

So if it's wet you can still enjoy a walk in the woods.