Flowering now:  Hedge Parsley; Hemp Agrimony; Common/Black Knapweed, Keeled Garlic; Ragwort; St. John’s Wort; Teasel

COMMON KNAPWEED – CENTAUREA NIGRA

Other Common English names: Black Knapweed; Hardheads: Welsh: Bengaled

Daisy Family: Asteraceae

Flowering: June, July, August, September

Height: medium, up to 1m; flowers: brush-like, purple, rayed or not, the bracts are pale brown with blackish-brown appendages; stem: stiff & downy, markedly swollen beneath the flowerhead; leaves: alternate, oblong.

 

Habitat: Resembling a thistle without any prickles, Knapweed is a well-known perennial plant which grows in abundance in a wide variety of habitats and is an important nectar source for a wide variety of insects. ___________________________________________________________________________________

HEMP AGRIMONY- eupatorium CANNABINum

Daisy Family: Asteraceae

Flowering: June, July, August, September

Height: tall, up to 1.5m flowers: umbel-like clusters of flower heads, each 1-2cm across & consisting of yellow disc florets and pink/lilac ray florets; leaves: trifloiate, in opposite pairs up the stem

Habitat: Damp grassland & scrub on chalk

Where to see it: Bryn Euryn; Bryn Pydew;

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HEDGE PARSLEY- tortilis japonica

Carrot family; Umbelliferae

Flowering: July, August, September

height: medium/tall; flowers: white or pink in umbels 20-40mm with both upper & lower bracts; leaves 1-3 pinnate, narrowly triangular oblong, sharply cut; fruits egg-shaped with purple hooked bristles.

Habitat: Hedge banks; scrub, woodland edge

 

 

The latest of the three common umbellifers to flower.

A grey-green annual, with stiffer stems than Cow Parsley & Rough Chervil.

 

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keeled garlic- Allium carinatum

Welsh:

Onion Family–Alliaceae

Flowering: July – August

height: medium, to 60cm; flowers: purplish-pink, petals blunt, stamens protruding; 4-6mm; few to the head, with very long papery bracts, with or without bulbils, or bulbils only. leaves: keeled

Habitat:

Where to see it: Bryn Euryn

I spotted this plant for the first time a few summers ago when I came across just one patch of it growing amongst the long grass of the open meadow area of Bryn Euryn, but now it has spread and is establishing in several other spots too.

 

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WILD TEASEL–DIPSACUS FULLONUM

Teasel Family–

Flowering: July – August

 

height: tall, to 2m; flowers: pinkish purple, in egg-shaped heads 6-8cm long, with numerous spiny bracts; on tall stems leaves: spine-covered appearing as rosettes in the plant’s first year; in the second year these die back and stems are opposite and joined at the base, the resulting cup collecting water

Habitat: Damp and disturbed grassland on heavy soils

Where to see it: Bryn Euryn- quarry field edge; Little Orme

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ST JOHN’S WORT, HAIRY – HYPERICUM HIRSUTUM

Flowering: July, August, September

height: medium/tall to 1m; flowers: in spikes; palish yellow petals and pointed sepals with marginal stalked black glands, often with marginal black glands; leaves : oval with distinct veins and translucent spots fruits:  

Habitat: Scrub and open woods on calcareous ground

Where to see it: Bryn Euryn

 

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