The spring gentian (Gentiana verna) is a species of the genus Gentiana and one of its smallest members, normally only growing to a height of a few centimetres.
The short stem supports up to three opposing pairs of elliptical or lanceolate leaves. The conspicuous vivid blue (sometimes purplish-red or rarely white) flowers are 1–2 cm in diameter, with a deeply five-lobed corolla; they are produced in late spring to early summer. The flowers attract butterflies and bees (particularly bumblebees) for pollination. Ants are responsible for the spreading of its seeds.
G. verna is one of the most widespread gentians, found on sunny alpine meadows and moorland throughout Eurasia from Ireland to Russia. It is common in central and southeastern Europe, such as in low mountain ranges like the Jura and Balkans, and up to an altitude of 2,600 metres (8,500 ft). It is also to be found in mountainous regions ranging from the High Atlas of Morocco to the mountains of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. In northern Europe, it is very rare, confined to Teesdale in northern England and a handful of locations in western Ireland.
It tends to thrive on dry meadows with chalky soil; it is also known to grow in silicaceous soils. Its scarcity has led to protection in a number of European countries as an endangered species.
Glebionis segetum (syn. Chrysanthemum segetum) is a species of the genus Glebionis, probably native only to the eastern Mediterranean region but now naturalized in western and northern Europe as well as China and parts of North America. Common names include corn marigold and corn daisy.
Glebionis segetum is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall, with spirally arranged, deeply lobed leaves 5–20 cm long. The flowers are bright yellow, produced in capitulae (flowerheads) 3.5-5.5 cm in diameter, with a ring of ray florets and a centre of disc florets.
Glebionis segetum is widely naturalised outside of its native range, colonising western and central Europe with early human agriculture; it can be an invasive weed in some areas.
Glebionis segetum was formerly treated in the genus Chrysanthemum, but under a 1999 decision of the International Botanical Congress, that genus has been redefined with a different circumscription to include the economically important florist's chrysanthemum (now Chrysanthemum indicum).
The corn marigold appears to have been a serious weed during the 13th century in Scotland, as suggested by a law of Alexander II which states that if a farmer allows so much as a single plant to produce seed in amongst his crops, then he will be fined a sheep.
In Crete and Greece, the leaves and the tender shoots of a variety called neromantilida (νερομαντηλίδα) are eaten raw in salads or browned in hot olive oil by the locals.
Ulex europaeus (gorse, common gorse, furze or whin) is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to portions of Europe from the northern United Kingdom south to Galicia in Spain and Portugal, and from the western Republic of Ireland east to Galicja in Poland and Ukraine.
Growing to 2–3 metres (7–10 ft) tall, it is an evergreen shrub. The young stems are green, with the shoots and leaves modified into green spines, 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) long. Young seedlings produce normal leaves for the first few months; these are trifoliate, resembling a small clover leaf.
The flowers are yellow, 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long, with the pea-flower structure typical of the Fabaceae; they are produced throughout the year, but mainly in early spring. The fruit is a legume (pod) 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long, dark purplish-brown, partly enclosed by the pale brown remnants of the flower; the pod contains 2-3 small blackish, shiny, hard seeds, which are ejected when the pod splits open in hot weather. Seeds remain viable for 30 years.
Like many species of gorse, it is often a fire-climax plant, which readily catches fire but re-grows from the roots after the fire; the seeds are also adapted to germinate after slight scorching by fire. It has a tap root, lateral and adventitious roots. An extremely tough and hardy plant, it can live for about thirty years.
This plant is used for hedging, boundary definition and groundcover in suitably sunny, open locations. Cultivars include 'Strictus' (Irish gorse), a dwarf form, and the double-flowered, non-fruiting 'Flore Pleno', which has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Veronica persica (common names: birdeye speedwell, common field-speedwell, Persian speedwell, large field speedwell, bird's-eye, or winter speedwell) is a flowering plant native to Eurasia. It is widespread as an introduced species in the British Isles where it was first recorded in 1825, in North America and eastern Asia, including Japan and Taiwan.
The cotyledons are triangular with truncated bases. The short-stalked leaves are broadly ovate with coarsely serrated margins, and measure 1 to 2 cm long. The leaves are paired on the lower stem and are alternately arranged on the upper parts. The plant has weak stems that form a dense, prostrate groundcover. The tips of stems often grow upright.
The flowers are roughly a centimeter wide and are sky-blue with dark stripes and white centers. They are zygomorphic, having only one vertical plane of symmetry. They are solitary on long, slender, hairy stalks in the leaf axils.
The seeds are transversely rugose and measure between 1 and 2 millimeters long. There are 5 to 10 seeds per locule in the fruit.
V. persica can be distinguished from similar species by its heart-shaped fruit with two widely-separated lobes.
Viola riviniana, the common dog-violet, is a species of the genus Viola native to Eurasia and Africa. It is also called wood violetand dog violet. It is a perennial herb of woodland ridges, grassland and shady hedge banks. It is found in all soils except acid or very wet.
It is a perennial, flowering from April to June.
Viola riviniana was voted the county flower of Lincolnshire in 2002, following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife.
Edible Uses
Edible Parts: Flowers; Leaves.
Edible Uses: Tea.
Young leaves and flower buds - raw or cooked. When added to soup they thicken it in much the same way as okra. Flowers and buds - raw. A tea can be made from the leaves.
Common dog violet’s beautiful flowers adorn fertile forests in southern and central Finland from the end of spring and the beginning of summer. A chilly early spring can mean that pollinators do not visit during the flowering time, so to be on the safe side the species grows self-pollinating flowers at the end of the summer that remain unopened. Violet capsules open up into three separate gutters, which are almost at the same level. Each gutter has seeds in two rows, and when the gutter’s sides begin to curl together the seeds are catapulted out one by one.
Their journey might not end there as ants drag the seeds further as they eat their fatty elaiosomes (oily appendage on seed).
Common dog violet’s virtually unbroken habitat reaches as far north in Finland as Vaasa and Joensuu. North of here it quickly becomes much rarer and its stands are far apart towards the mouth of the River Tornio, around Kemi and in Kuusamo. Common dog violet grows in forests and meadows, and can show where forests and forest margins used to be.
Common dog violet is often confused with its close relative heath dog violet (V. canina) even though there are clear differences between the two with regards to their leaves and ways of growing. Common dog violet has a vertical root and a basal rosette, while heath dog violet’s creeping rootstock doesn’t develop one. The species’ leaves are similar but common dog violet’s are much wider and its stipules are narrower and densely slender-toothed (heath dog violet’s are serrated).
Heath dog violet is at home in open environments, from meadows to coppices. It also grows in the forest, usually close to human activity, as a consequence of e.g. grazing, slash-and-burn agriculture and logging. Sometimes common dog violet shares its habitat with its larger relative wonder violet (V. mirabilis), but common dog violet’s leaves are much smaller, under 4 cm (1.6 in.) wide.
Family: Violet Family – Violaceae
Growing form: Perennial herb. Rootstock vertical, dark.
Height: 5–20 cm (2–8 in.). Stem leafy, branched, usually glabrous (sometimes sparsely hairy).
Flower: Corolla zygomorphic, blue–purple, inner parts white (sometimes completely white), 1.4–2.5 cm (0.55-1 in.) wide; petals 5, overlapping, covering one another, lowest with short, thick, usually upwardly-curved pale spur. Sepals 5. Stamens 5. Gynoecium fused, single-styled. Flowers solitary, nodding.
Leaves: In basal rosette and alternate on stem, stalked, stipulate; stalk wingless. Blade widely cordate–almost kidney-shaped, with rounded teeth (crenate), bright green. Stipules linearly elliptic, long-tipped, usually densely slender-toothed, teeth spreading, narrow.
Fruit: Glabrous, 3-valved capsule.
Habitat: Young forests, broad-leaved forests, forest margins, coppices, grazing land, young meadows.
Flowering time: May–June.
Common Name: purple poppy mallow
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Malvaceae
Native Range: Central United States
Zone: 4 to 8
Height: 0.50 to 1.00 feet
Spread: 0.50 to 3.00 feet
Bloom Time: May to June
Bloom Colour: Magenta
Sun: Full sun
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Tolerates: Drought, Dry Soil, Shallow-Rocky Soil
Easily grown in dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun. Grows well from seed and may self-seed in the garden in optimum growing conditions. Long tap root gives plant good drought tolerance but makes transplanting of established plants difficult.
Callirhoe involucrata, commonly called purple poppy mallow, is a mat-forming, Missouri native perennial which most frequently occurs in dryish, rocky soils in prairies, fields and along roadsides scattered in several counties mostly northeast of the Missouri River. Plants typically form a low foliage mound from 6-9" tall on procumbent stems which spread along the ground to 3' wide. Solitary, upward facing, cup-shaped, five-petaled, poppy-like, magenta flowers (to 2.5" wide) continuously appear on thin stems above the foliage from mid-spring to fall. Stamens form a prominent central column typical of mallow family members, but with distinctive style branches. Leaves are palmately divided into 5-7 finger-like lobes. The closely-related Missouri native fringed poppy mallow (Callirhoe digitata) is, by contrast, a spindly, erect plant which typically grows 2-3' tall.
Genus name honors the daughter of a minor Greek deity, Achelous, a river god.
Specific epithet means with an involucre, a ring of bracts surrounding several flowers.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Crown rot may occur in poorly drained soils.
Garden Uses
Good native ground cover. Border fronts, rock gardens, native plant gardens, wild gardens, naturalized areas or meadows. Sprawl over a stone wall. Fits well into both formal garden areas as well as wild/naturalized areas.
The short stem supports up to three opposing pairs of elliptical or lanceolate leaves. The conspicuous vivid blue (sometimes purplish-red or rarely white) flowers are 1–2 cm in diameter, with a deeply five-lobed corolla; they are produced in late spring to early summer. The flowers attract butterflies and bees (particularly bumblebees) for pollination. Ants are responsible for the spreading of its seeds.
It tends to thrive on dry meadows with chalky soil; it is also known to grow in silicaceous soils. Its scarcity has led to protection in a number of European countries as an endangered species.
