Big Meadow Search

Great Welsh name

Thank you

Heather, Calluna vulgaris. Typically up to 60cm. Leaves opposite, stalkless. Small purplish-pink flowers with purplish-green bracts. 4 pink sepals and petals, 8 stamens, curved style protrudes beyond flower.

Elephant Hawk-moth, Deilephila elpenor (2 of 2). Main larval food plants are Great and Rosebay Willowherb and fuchsias. Other foodplants include Hedge Bindweed, Bogbean, Enchanter’s-nightshade, Purple-loosestrife, Himalayan Balsam.

Elephant Hawk-moth larva, Deilephila elpenor (1 of 2). First abdominal segment is expanded to allow head and thoracic segments to retract into it. Horn on 8th abdominal segment is dark brown with white tip.

Nice photo

Lots of Bittersweet here but not finding Black Nightshade here…..yet

Not seen Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara, with such purple leaves before 🤔

Least Yellow Underwing, Noctua interjecta. Adults fly July to early September. Larval foodplants include Common Mallow and Meadowsweet.

A trio of species: 22-spot Ladybird adult feeding on Erysiphe alphitoides powdery mildew on an oak leaf

Water-pepper, Persicaria hydropiper. Up to 75cm. Spear or strap-shaped leaves with hairy fringe. Slender flower spikes. Flowers well-spaced. Tepals greenish-white or pinkish. 2 stigmas. Nutlets have finely pitted surface. Leaves have strong pepper taste

Got excited as I thought I had stumbled across a new species on my forestry track walk…….turns out it was buried plastic mesh 🤪😆

A good example of crypsis or cryptic camouflage: Sharp-angled Peacock moth, Macaria alternata. Larval food plants include Alder, Bog-myrtle and Blackthorn.

Nobody was brave enough to suggest a name!
Shepherd’s-purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris. Up to 40cm. Variable hairiness & leaf shape. Stem leaves clasping with arrow-shaped auricles. Erect flower racemes. White flowers, 2.5mm. Triangular, flat fruits on long stalk with notch above

The stunning spiky Sea Holly just one of the many fascinating wild plants that can be found growing near the coast. The challenge this week is #ByTheSea, why not see what you can find, share your pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm.

What can you find blooming along the coast? That’s the challenge this week for #WildflowerHour! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #ByTheSea! Happy flower hunting! 🌿🌸🌊

A puzzle to start your day today. Can you guess the species based on these multi-rayed (mainly 5) hairs? 🤔🤓
Answer later today.

Hoary Willowherb, Epilobium parviflorum. Up to 75cm. Densely hairy leaves and stem, can give it a grey appearance. 4-lobed stigma, held upright. Pale pink-purple flowers. Round-based, stalkless leaves, do not clasp the stem.

Plant of the week Visit the post for more.

The Botanical Society of Scotland’s Species of the Week: Devil’s-bit Scabious.
The link takes you to that plus their back catalogue of ~ 200 species

botsoc.scot/blogs-and-pu...

A powdery mildew associate for a change.
Podosphaera dipsacacearum on Wild Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum

Rosebay Willowherb, Chamerion angustifolium. Up to 150cm. Alternate, pointed, strap-shaped leaves. PInkish-purple flowers up to 3cm across. Four unequally sized petals: upper 2 broader. Four long, narrow reddish sepals. Stigma 4-lobed

For #Deadnettlefamily for #wildflowerhour
Wild Clary, Salvia verbenaca. Up to 80cm. Hairy. Basal leaves, long-stalked, up to 12cm. Stem leaves unstalked. Whorls of violet-blue flowers. 2-lobed upper lip, 3-lobed lower lip.

Wild Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum. Basal leaves to 40cm with short stalk. Leaf bristles with swollen bases. Toothed leaf margin. Midrib raised below and with spines. Flower heads to 8cm, egg-shaped. Numerous long spiny bracts. Pinkish-purple flowers open in horizontal band

Peacock, Aglais io. Adults feed on a wide range of flowers including Betony, Bramble, Buddleja*, Common Fleabane, Devil’s-bit Scabious*, Hemp-agrimony, ragworts, Water Mint, Wild Teasel and Yarrow*

Where does time go? 8 weeks of the Big Meadow Search season have gone but you still have until 31st August to record grassland plant species with us.
Thanks to everyone who has already sent us their findings, it is much appreciated.
Full details at bigmeadowsearch.co.uk

Phasia hemiptera, a parasitic tachinid fly (male shown). Eggs are laid on Red-legged Shieldbugs in spring and Green Shieldbugs in autumn. Adults mainly feed on pollen from umbellifers and Daisy family members.

Lesser Spearwort. Ranunculus flammula. Up to 50cm. Tends to grow where nutrient levels low or soils shallow. Hairless. Leaves undivided with basal leaves on long stalks. Yellow flowers up to 2cm. Grooved flower stalk

It seemed the most apt descriptor!

A right ‘Bobby dazzler’ on Wild Angelica in my field today. A Ruby-tailed wasp species. Females are cuckoos and lay eggs in nest cells of other wasp species. Adults feed on nectar.

Beautiful botanical painting by Keble Martin illustrating some members of the Deadnettle Family. Can you find a member of this lovely family for #WildflowerHour this week? If you can, share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #DeadNettleFamily

The image for this week’s #wildflowerhour challenge post is one from W. Keble Martin’s classic wildflower guide, The Concise British Flora in Colour. Isn’t it a beauty? There’s some very lovely members of the Lamiaceae or #DeadNettlefamily can you find one for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm?

Marsh Yellow-cress, Rorippa palustris, Up to 60cm. 2-6 lateral lobes on stem leaves. Petal and sepal length similar. Fruits up to 10mm, 1-2 times as long as their stalk. Fruits arise all around the stem