NETTLE CATKINS

You won't have any difficulty finding stinging nettles.  They are now in flower.

The flowers are in long catkins, looking a bit like millet sprays

 Stinging nettles are not popular with humans but enjoyed by over 40 insect species including several moth caterpillars.  They are also larval foodplants for three or four of our most colourful butterflies:  small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock and comma.

SORREL - RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET

With the sun behind them, the flower spikes of common sorrel glow pink.

Lots of them to see in the rather low key wildflower meadow next to the cemetery in Kington Lane

COWSHED THEATRE

Brambles and moss regularly colonise the remains of the cowshed that was here years ago. 

We could just leave it to get overgrown but it seems like a site with potential - maybe a barbecue area, or an  open-air theatre like the Minack in Cornwall, or who knows what ?

So once again we cleared it.  

Perhaps we can encourage teen-age fire enthusiasts to use it as a campfire circle.  We need to let a few trees grow round it to make a glade and perhaps we should provide the firewood.

 

SHEPHERD'S PURSE

 Another small white flower, in the cabbage family, that is easily overlooked, is the Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

The name relates to the seed capsules which are shaped like miniature hearts held on thin stalks.  If you split one of the 'purses' open you can find 'shepherd's money' (seeds) inside.

It is usually found on waste ground, roadsides or in cracks in the pavement but I found these growing in long grass in the Mundy Playing Field.   

STICKY WILLY

Sticky Willy is one of the many names for Goosegrass or Cleavers (Galium aparine). 

Children enjoy pulling the long stems and sticking them to other people's clothing.  The little hooks on the leaves and stems enable it to clamber up other plants, walls, etc to reach the light.  It's quite a successful strategy as you can see from the photo below.

 The flowers are minute white stars in the axils of the leaves, which form a whorl all round the stem.

  The fruits are also covered in tiny 'velcro' hooks which attach to animal fur and human socks, helping to spread the seeds far and wide.

The plant has various medicinal uses and also makes very good tinder if dried.

MOTH PREJUDICE RANT

Listening to Radio 4's 'Broadcasting House' programme this morning I heard a disappointing example of mothism.  Guest Tony Blackburn tried to make the point that of all the 2000+ species of moth in Britain only two (or maybe three) have larvae that attack clothes and carpets, so we shouldn't kill every moth we see.

This photo from the English Heritage website shows the smaller Webbing Clothes Moth and the darker Pale-backed Clothes Moth against a 1cm grid, so quite small.

Good info also available on the   Natural History Museum  website

Tony's words were treated totally flippantly by the other guests, one of whom actually said she thought it must be all species from the state of her wardrobe.  Even the presenter said he thought they were all living in his house.

So this irresponsible flippancy perpetuates ignorance and anti-moth prejudice across the nation.

Many moths have caterpillars that feed on plants but very few cause serious harm.  Many species of adult moth are important pollinators and several plants flower at night precisely because they are pollinated by night-flying moths.  More info on UCL website

  

Evening primrose 

(Photo:Bank Farm Plants)

On a more sombre note, moths are an important food source for birds and other creatures

And moths are not all grey-brown drab affairs.  There is huge variety and great beauty in the moth world.

  

Privet hawkmoth                                 Cinnabar

  
Sallow                                    Scalloped Oak

  

Elephant hawkmoth                                Garden Tiger

  
Merveille du Jour                          Hebrew Character

Sorry for rant but moths are in steep decline and need our support not mindless slaughter.

SPEEDWELL

A blue haze amongst the grass is probably down to the flowers of the Germander Speedwell or Bird's Eye Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys)  which spreads itself into a patch by rooting its trailing stems.

 

All speedwells are blue with two white stamens like drumsticks.  Germander Speedwell has one of the bluest and biggest flowers. 

 Some of the recent arrivals to Britain such as the Persian Speedwell or Common Field Speedwell (Veronica persica), native to Iran, are weeds of disturbed ground.  It's more weedy and has paler flowers.

 Germander Speedwell with its white eye in the centre is the most attractive in my opinion.