Big Meadow Search

Latex: coloured sap, usually white. (Can be poisonous and a skin irritant).
From the Latin ‘latex’ meaning fluid or liquid.
Examples Greater Celandine (left), Dandelion (top), Petty Spurge (bottom).

Nipplewort, Lapsana communis: Look out for the rust fungus, Puccinia lapsanae, on young leaf blades and petioles. Seeing a lot of it around here at the moment

Ciliate: fringed with hairs (cilia). Usually used in relation to leaf margins.
From the Latin ‘cilium’ meaning eyelash or hair.
Examples: Great Wood-rush (left), Honeysuckle (top) and Germander Speedwell (bottom).

🌿 Read one of our latest Biological Flora accounts. It brings together all current knowledge on on Polygonatum multiflorum, a remarkable forest plant. Written by @FLEUR_network researchers & led by @ForNaLab & @INBO.be

buff.ly/DPDckMO

👍 thought it must have been likely

Has ‘supermarket car park plants’ ever been a challenge for wildflowerhour?

A beauty and a new record, perfect!

For #wildflowerhour this week, it is Dog’s Mercury. Other names include snake’s food and kentish balsam

Hydathodes Bellenot et al. introduce hydathodes, an oft-overlooked plant organ that acts as a pressure valve to expel excess guttation sap at the leaf margin, typically visible at dawn.

More details at www.cell.com/current-biol...

Hydathode: organs that exude water by the process of guttation. Usually found on apex and teeth of leaves.
From Greek, ‘hyda’ for water and ‘hodos’ for way.
Great Willowherb (top L), Alexanders (top R), Ivy-leaved Toadflax (bottom L) and Red Valerian (bottom R)

This month I am going to try and post a daily, photographically illustrated, botanical term. Will start today and see how it goes 🤞🏼

Thank you. I’ve been thinking about it but I did say to myself, no more books after the 2nd one was done 🤪

That’s fab feedback. Keep at it

Thank you. Keep watching as something new starting tomorrow

Well that’s the end of 90+ daily vegetative plant ID posts from 1st Dec until today. It was a bit of a challenge but it’s nothing compared to Stella Ross-Craig’s (1906-2006) work. She did two drawings per week from 1947 to 1973 to produce a 31 part ‘Drawings of British Plants’

Mistletoe, Viscum album. Evergreen. Parasitic. Round, repeatedly forked, brittle twigs. Leaves can be 3-5 whorled. Leaves leathery, yellow-green, 3-8cm long and 0.5-3 cm wide.

Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum. Leaves less than 5cm long with 4-12 blunt teeth per side. Secondary veins end at a tooth apex. Terminal tooth usually wider than long. Leaves, especially upper ones, may become purplish. Petiole 1-5cm long

I got the link on 16th Feb. I will try and send it to you

👍 I signed up. I guess they will be harvesting other ad hoc records off iRecord as and when

White Dead-nettle, Lamium album. Forms patches. Hairy. Square stem, retrorsely hairy and often purplish . Leaves up to 7cm, triangular to heart-shaped. Leaves coarsely toothed with typically 10-18 teeth per side. Terminal tooth longer than wide.

Apologies for typo, should say Ranunculus

I don’t know if you already know but the ladybird recording scheme have launched a pilot scheme to get people recording ladybird parasites. I had a quick look on iRecord activities but can’t see it listed. irecord.org.uk/sites/defaul...

Lesser Spearwort, Rannunculus flammula. Hairless. Stems can be purplish. Undivided leaves. Hydathodes visible on weakly toothed leaf margin. Basal leaves have long furrowed stalks 3-7 parallel main veins with raised midrib on under surface.

Botanical University Challenge got underway this month with 32 teams. First 2 rounds now available to view so why not test your all round botanical knowledge.
Big Meadow Search has contributed questions this year so I hope you get those ones correct 😉

m.youtube.com/@BotanicalUn...

Pignut, Conopodium majus. Hairless. Basal leaves 2-3 pinnate, up to 15cm, arise singly from tuber and wither quite quickly.

Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulgare. Leaves dull greyish green, lobed, up to 30cm. Hairy underneath. Leaf margins have spines with swollen yellow base

For #wildflowerhour it’s Red Dead-nettle aka purple archangel, bumble-bee flower or bad man’s posies from me

Wild Carrot, Daucus carota. Roughly hairy with solid, ridged stem. Leaves 2-3 pinnate. Bristle-tipped leaflets. Leaf edges usually antrorsely (forward pointing) scabrid or ciliate (fringed with hairs). Channelled petiole. Sparse latex

For ‘Celandine Day’ here are contrasting examples of leaf colour variation on adjacent Lesser Celandine plants

Thank you 👍