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A Journey With Plants

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A Journey With Plants

Why A Journey With Plants? Learning about wild plants is very much a journey- you will always discov

17/02/2024

Some serious spikiness on this wild rose!

05/02/2022

The most impressive Holly tree trunk I've ever encountered!

Most Hollies I've seen have been multi stemmed, or if single stemmed have branched out much sooner that this one. I had to have a really close look to double check it was actually Holly!

Glove for scale in third pic- which looks like someone is trying to escape the hole 😄

Such incredible gnarled wood too.

31/01/2022

The Lesser celandine is popping up again! Many of them (but not all) have beautifully marked leaves.

It is one of the plants that serves as a reminder that spring is around the corner, and with Imbolc tomorrow we are getting closer 😊

I've also included a screenshot of my post from last year, when my account was very new!

15/12/2021

It's been nearly two months since I last posted, trying to find my mojo again after a difficult time. A walk in the sun today definitely helped ☀️

I love seeing all the grassland perennials hunkered down, and like me, waiting for the return of spring!

Road verges are particularly good as they don't get nibbled down like the fields. Here is some Cow parsley and Common vetch- two often found roadside species 🌱💚

20/10/2021

Some fab fungi seen on a walk this morning (before the rain started!) - penny bun/cep, fly agaric and meadow coral. Also a beautiful harebell hanging on!

Isn't nature just amazing 🥰 there is always something to see 😍

15/10/2021

A meadow waxcap looking like a little lampshade 😊

They are such a gorgeous peach colour with white stipes.

As they mature they turn outward, a bit like an umbrella in the wind!

14/10/2021

Yeay to Waxcap season! I love all fungi but waxcaps are so amazing in all their crazy colours ❤🧡💛💚

So far I haven't spotted much this year, last year was a particularly good year but I'm hoping some more rain will help things along, the soil is still so dry.

I have spotted one of my favourites though, Blackening waxcap which is so vibrant it almost glows. It has a pronounced conical shape and as its name suggests, as it ages it turns black.

I think that's a type of conecap behind, but I'm not too sure on that one....

12/10/2021

A change from plants today! I was lucky to get to watch this busy little guy while eating my lunch in my van (sorry about the dirty window....🤦‍♀️)

Stoats are such amazing inquisitive animals and he or she would be having a great time exploring this empty cow byre, probably lots of mice in there!

Unfortunately I live in an area where predator control is too severe and so it is a real treat to get to see one.

11/10/2021

Very late flowering Timothy!

At a glance it can look like Meadow foxtail which is an early flowering grass, often out in May or even April.

The key difference is in the floret, Meadow foxtail has a floret with a single long awn, and Timothy has a floret with two points, a bit like cat's ears. Timothy is sometimes called Cat's tail so that helps me to remember.

What was really interesting was that these specimens were all growing close to each other, but some had purple stamens and some had white stamens (although up close they are a pinky white)

I think I recall mentioning this in a post some time ago but I can't remember what he said about it!

26/09/2021

Beautiful trees on a short walk today- a huge Small-leaved lime and an equally impressive veteran Ash with the light catching its fissured bark.

25/09/2021

Aren't we being blessed with the most beautiful September 🌞😊

A few wildflowers are still flowering, including this lovely Lesser spearwort.

Lesser spearwort is in the buttercup family and as you can see has very similar flowers.

It's a nice easy plant to tell apart from other buttercups as it has simple, spear-shaped leaves (shown very badly in the photo!!) and grows in bogs and wet ditches.

The juice of the plant is an irritant and it has been used historically to help heal ulcers.

18/09/2021

Spotted these Butterwort leaves in a moorland ditch whilst on a wander 🙂

Luckily my phone camera was playing ball and the light was right, so you can see the tiny glands on the leaves that secrete a sticky substance.

Butterwort is a carnivorous plant, and just like Sundew it supplements its diet with insects which allows it to survive on nutrient poor bogs.

It's a nice easy plant to identify with it's lime green, greasy feeling leaves. It has a beautiful purple flower in early summer.

As far as I know the name comes from it's use as a vegetable rennet, I'd imagine the same enzymes that it uses for digesting insects are also useful for the curdling process.

I think it's latin name is rather cute, Pinguicula vulgaris, which reminds me of the little penguin off the TV 🐧 📺 😄

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North York Moors National Park Authority, The Old Vicarage, Bondgate
Helmsley
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