FLOWERS: BLACK & WHITE

Maybe not the most popular plants but attractive to insects and striking to look at, here are three more flowering plants to notice at Filnore Woods.

First up, the Field Bindweed.  The white, pink or pink-and-white striped flowers are much smaller than the large white trumpets of hedge bindweed, but like its larger cousin, field bindweed is a real bind in our gardens.  Here among the grass  at Filnore, though, it is very pretty.

Next we have the dead flower shoots of Stinging Nettle.  Nettles are not popular with humans for obvious reasons, but caterpillars of four of our common butterflies feed on them as well as numerous attractive moths and a whole host of other little creatures.

There is even a book by B. N. K. Davis called 'Insects on Nettles'.

And of course Hogweed which is present in bloom for much of the year and provides nectar for all sorts of beetles, flies, bees, etc.

I've included the beautiful structure below in the black and white section because it is currently white.  But the flower of Goatsbeard is yellow, like a dandelion.  The flower opens only in the mornings and then closes up, as you can see in the 'bud' on the right here, only to open up the next day as this surprisingly large seed head.  It's other picturesque name is Jack-Go-To-Bed-At-Noon.

Don't know what that fly is up to.