Wildflowers, fruits and berries in your location

[lugg]

I cannot see a previous thread about wildflowers so have started this.
I really enjoy seeking out wildflowers and would love to see some of the varieties from where other AP's live .

These are pretty common in riparian zones in Herefordshire

The lovely, but aggresive invader, Himalayan Balsam



Although its common name might suggest it; it is no relation to cannabis

Hemp Agrimony



Another pretty flower common in some of the meadows here,
Field Restharrow

[bixaorellana]

This is great, Lugg. There was a nice accumulation of wild plant pictures in What's in Bloom & discussion about making a wild plant thread. Now someone finally did! Thanks, this will motivate me to go get some snaps of some things around here.

Your photos are wonderful. Is that a kind of bee on the hemp agrimony? I love the pink pea flowers. There's a wild pea here with completely black flowers -- not nearly as pretty.

[Deleted]

Fab idea Lugg, and, great pics!!

I was just bemoaning the loss of all the elderberries in the Foraging thread up top in the food section....

And, I'll be missing the giant Rosa Rugosa rosehips up in NY this week as well.

I'm heartsick.

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[lugg]

Lovely K2 - was the hemp agrimony in your pics growing near water?

These wild strawberries are growing in a neglected part of my garden

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2012 21:53:56 GMT lugg said:

Lovely K2 - was the hemp agrimony in your pics growing near water?

No, it was a relatively dry area.

[lugg]

[bixaorellana]

Hmmmmm. Lugg might have Druidical tendencies.

(Excellent photograph!)

[bixaorellana]

Okay, I've been saying forever that I need to post some wildflower pics, & Lugg's thread has finally gotten me going. I took these the other day in the huge open area where I go with the dogs. I made up for lost time with tons of pics, but I'll be merciful & not put them all here at once.

There is a milpa -- a cornfield -- right in the neighborhood. That gardener maintains ancient practice by letting squash and beans entwine among the cornstalks. I don't know what the lovely red flower is.




I actually know what this is: Nicandra physaloides ~






Teeny little low-growers ~

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[htmb]

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Eisch!!!!!!!!!!!! OXALIS....shhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Oh so beautiful HTMB but, the bane of my existence as a horticulturist and the constant consults/ requests from clients, or potential clients to rid them of "that clover".
I have learned to live with it in my own landscape and try to just accept that oxalis never dies, the name of a chapter in a book I love called Passalong Plants by a regional gardener with wit and wisdom, Felder Rushing.

[tod2]

Sept 28, 2012 14:56:32 GMT bixaorellana said:

There is a milpa -- a cornfield -- right in the neighborhood. That gardener maintains ancient practice by letting squash and beans entwine among the cornstalks. I don't know what the lovely red flower is.

Bixa, When I saw this photo I immediately thought " Now why is there a photo of an African garden here?"
This is exactly how all gardens are grown out in the valleys, hills and dales where the rural Africans live.
Lately I have noticed rows of spinach or beans grown in gardens closer to the city, but where maize is concerned, it is always grown with pumpkins and other hardy veg.

[htmb]

Nov 25, 2012 18:27:07 GMT casimira said:

Eisch!!!!!!!!!!!! OXALIS....shhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Oh so beautiful HTMB but, the bane of my existence as a horticulturist and the constant consults/ requests from clients, or potential clients to rid them of "that clover".
I have learned to live with it in my own landscape and try to just accept that oxalis never dies, the name of a chapter in a book I love called Passalong Plants by a regional gardener with wit and wisdom, Felder Rushing.

Casimira, I figured someone would identify that pretty little blossom. It was growing wild in one of the parks I visit. The area used to be a horse pasture many years ago, and it is being allowed to return to its natural state.

[Deleted]

Well, there are umpteen species/ varieties of them HTMB, some are cultivars that are indeed desirable. The plant is bulbous so, therefore, most people's method of eradicating them is to unwittingly pull up what they trust or believe is a root with a few bulbs, when actually what they are leaving in the ground to proliferate, is a 'nest' of little "bulbettes" so to speak, which, end up the following season doubling, if not tripling, in reproducing thus onfoward successive generations to be dealt with or not.

[tod2]

I could not find any of these wild Watsonia's near enough to photograph until now. They appear in the grass on hillsides at the same time as the Trumpet Lilly..
I cannot be sure about the latin name but it's either Watsonia densiflora or the more sparse Watsonia confusa. Yes, I am confusa'd ;D

[tod2]

Blooming at the same time as the Watsonias are these beautiful Trumpet Lillies known as Lilium Formosanum and now regarded as an invasive species.
I think the people who regulate the flora forget that we have an ever decreasing bee population in the world and that they rely on flowers such as these for part of their existence.

[Deleted]

Well, they seem to be thriving at the moment, even if they clearly have pollen to spare.

[tod2]

That's the problem. They are invasive, an escapee from Formosa ( Taiwan) but I don't care. They are very important to bees. And bees are very important to life on this planet.

[tod2]

Every time I drive out of my gate I look across the road to the farm fence and see these lovely little blue flowers. So, I took some photos and looked them up in my Wild flower book.

They are a shrub called Barleria gueinzii - Named after Wilhelm Gueinzius 1817-1874 : An Apothecary, a botanical and zoological collector.

A scrambling shrub growing up to 2m on forest margins, in woodland and rocky places. Much branched and blooms in profusion, flowers drop after a day and this plant is easily grown......in other words Tod thinks it's a weed. ;D

[fumobici]

That Barleria is charming. And apparently unobtainable in the US.

[Deleted]

Lovely pic!!
Saw the emergence of the dewberry blossoms yesterday while out riding on the levee. It looks like it's going to be good yield this spring. There were honeybees all over them too!!!

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My 'brown turkey" fig in it's current state, leafing out!!!

[lugg]

I cannot believe that I have not been back to this thread , fabulous guys. Tod, your wildflowers are just so exotic

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[lugg]

The humble buttercup



Cow parsley



Wild Strawberry


Nettle

[Deleted]

I love wildflowers.

[htmb]

I wish I had stopped to photograph the wildflowerrs carpeting the wide median on the Cedar Key end of US 19. They were stunningly beautiful, but I'm not sure I could have captured them properly.

[tod2]

There seems to be something special about wildflowers, even wild weeds! Kerouac, your splash of yellow Dandelion flowers are lovely. www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Taraxacum-officinale.htm

Lugg, there must be millions of wild blooms in the fields of England (and France) since the weather finally decided to warm up a bit. Has anyone ever noticed that the predominant colour in wildflowers seems to be white and yellow?
Your photos are a treat! I remember those nettles well......wading in to pick wild garlic taught me a very quick lesson on how vicious those leaves are!

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