I WALK THE LANES

That is lanes not line, any way I do not have many black clothes.

The garden reaches certain points in the year when there is a lull in flowering, but there is another show in the local hedge banks.

What is this? It is the nasty hogweed - beware the blistery sap. The same plant and four variations. Also known as Copwflop in Cornwall and Wippul-Squip using the hollow stems as drinking straws in Devon and Somerset.

And then there are apples - horse apples they are called. 
My mother would keep a bucket and small hand shovel in her car for such items, take them home and put them on the roses. Why she did this when were a dairy farm I have no idea.

Flowers in hedge bankings - R loves the yellow dandelions. And left greater stitchwort or poppers - so called because when the seed heads are dry a gentle squeeze and POP!

Scented flowers, well those with an aroma, on the left meadowsweet, (known up here in Cumbria as Courtship-And-Matrimony from the difference in scent before and after crushing the plant), on the right garlic mustard or Jack-by-the-hedge.
The latter is the feed plant of the orange tip butterfly. It is largely over by now but lines the local roads in the late spring.






Of course it is edible as are the wild strawberries - this is not the earlier barren strawberry but both are potentillas, and look at the beauty of the awns of wild grasses. Many flowers may be insignificant until you look more closely.





Pink flowers - the abundant red campion, Granfer-griggles in Dorset and Plum-pudding in Suffolk, and assorted small cranesbills. this is the shining cranesbill not the doves-foot.







R is quite proud of the fact that she can identify vetches which is made easier because they are a persistent weed in the garden, in one place climbing all over red currant bushes.

 Earlier in the year the dark leaves of Cuckoo Pint, Jack-in-the-pulpit, the wild arum appear to be later by the sheath of the flower (and later the red poisonous berries of Lords and Ladies). 

Not the only plant that is poisonous, even the beautiful foxglove can be deadly if eaten.


Not all flowers are down by your feet - the honeysuckle clambers over the hedgerows and is attractive even when in bud.

Yet, down on the ground the yellow stars of lesser celandine, ranunculus ficaris lights up a dark corner. This is one of two kinds, has bulbils in the axils of the leaf which fall off to become new plants.

And then in the darkest corner is the wood sorrel, Soukie-sourach in Inverness, Hallelujah in Somerset, one of the prettiest and daintiest of flowers. The plant is edible, just pick it and chew - tastes bit sour, almost lemony.

I can recommend Geoffrey Grigson's book, The Englishman's Flora, if you can find a copy which lists the regional and local names for wild flowers. It makes fascinating reading.

When I was nobbut a lad I would botanise (is that a word) and have several entries in the Atlas of the British Flora. My great find was Meum athamanticum, spignel, which really belonged to my mother as she sat on it and said, "Oh! What is this?" It had last been noticed in that location by John Ruskin many years before and not been noted since. Later it was claimed by a lady from Barrow-in-Furness who came to check my record. I managed to correct that in the end with the subsequent editions of the Flora of Cumbria.

Been away in Wales, get back to soggy lawns and plums weighing down the tree, our one greengage gone mouldy and lots of work to do.