Wild Flowers in the Orchard

Wild Flowers

Spotted in Butterfield Green Community Orchard on July 11th 2009:

Bindweed
Convolvulus arvensis
Climbing plant, twists round supports; white trumpet-shaped flowers; very invasive – can kill plants it winds round

Bird’s-foot trefoil
Lotus carniculatus
Low, creeping plant with clover-like leaves and bright yellow, pea-like flowers

Burdock, lesser
Actium minus
Large plant with branches of oval leaves and very sticky round burs

Calamint, lesser
Calaminta nepeta
Tall plant with branching stems of small grey/green leaves; small, mauve, pea-like flowers; smells slightly minty

Clover red & white
Trifolium pratese & repens
Leaves in 3 parts with purple or white domed flower heads made up of many narrow tubular flowers; sweet-smelling

Comfrey ‘knitbone’
Symphytum officinale
Tall, large-leaved plant with narrow blue/purple bell-shaped flowers hanging down in groups; makes good green compost; leaves used for sprains/breaks

Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Long leaves with tooth-like edges growing from the base of the central stem; bright yellow flowers made up of many thin petals; leaves edible

Dead nettle
Lamium album
Ovate, serrated leaves in pairs up the stems; large white pea-like flowers where the leaves join the stem

Dock, red veined
Rumex sanguineus
Tall plant with reddish stems and large, oval, red-veined leaves; tiny, hard reddish flowers in spikes; leaves used to soothe stings from nettles

Fat hen
Chenopodium album
Tall plant with oval, slightly tooth-edged leaves; small, hard green flowers in spikes; used as a vegetable from stone-age times

Knapweed
Centaurea nemoralis
Slender stems with narrow leaves all the way up to round, pink/purple flower-heads, made up of feathery petals; bulbous swelling of brown bracts below flower-head

Lady’s bedstraw
Gallium verum
Tall, branching stems with star-like arrangement of very narrow leaves; spikes of sweet-scented, bright greenish- yellow flowers; used as mattress stuffing

Mallow, common
Malva sylvestris
Tall, branching plant with frilly-edged leaves and large rose-purple flowers; leaves edible

Mugwort
Artemisia campestris
Tall plant; deeply cut, chrysanthemum-like leaves all the way up branching stems to spikes of small, hard white flowers

Plantain, great
Plantago major
A low circle of wide, ovate leaves with deep veins running length-ways; spikes of tiny hard green-white flowers

Poppy, common
Papaver rhoeas
Medium-height plant with deeply cut leaves and bright red flower with yellow centre

Vetch, tufted
Vicia cracca
Low, spreading plant with small oval pairs of leaves along the stems; branched tendrils from stems; spikes of bright purple pea-like flowers

Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Like cow-parsley, a tall plant with umbels of tiny white flowers; deeply cut feathery leaves