ampanula trachelium

Campanula trachelium or nettle-leaved bellflower is a species of bellflower. It is a Eurasian blue wildflower native to Denmark and England and now naturalized in southeast Ireland. It is also found southward through much of Europe into Africa.

The alternate name throatwort is derived from an old belief that C. trachelium is a cure for sore throat, and the species name trachelium refers to this old belief. There never was an actual medical benefit from the plant, which had no observable effect on the throat. But in past centuries, belief in the occult doctrine of signatures was very deeply stamped on superstitioius "believers".

Other folknames include Our Lady's Bells because the color blue was identified with the Virgin Mary's scarf, veil, or shawl; Coventry Bells because C. trachelium was especially common in fields around Coventry; and "Bats-in-the-Belfry" or in the singular "Bat-in-the-Belfry", because the stamens inside the flower were like bats hanging in the bell of a church steeple.

ampanula trachelium is a perennial plant with one or more unbranched, often reddish, square-edged stems that are roughly hairy. The leaves grow alternately up the stems. The lower leaves are long-stalked and ovate with a heart-shaped base. The upper leaves have no stalks and are ovate or lanceolate, hairy with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a one sided spike with a few slightly nodding flowers. Each flower has five sepals which are fused, erect and hairy, and the five violet (or occasionally white) petals are fused into a bell that is hairy inside. There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. The fruit is a hairy, nodding capsule.

Clinopodium vulgare

Clinopodium vulgare, wild basil, is a species of flowering plant in the Lamiaceae family.


Wild basil is a perennial rhizomatous herb with square, upright, hairy stems and opposite pairs of leaves. The leaves are hairy, ovate or lanceolate in shape, and have short or no stalks, wedge-shaped bases and bluntly-toothed margins. The inflorescence is a terminal spike consisting of several loose whorls of clusters of flowers growing in the axils of the leaves. Each flower has a short stalk, five sepals about 10 millimetres (0.39 in) long and five petals 12 to 15 millimetres (0.47 to 0.59 in) in length which are fused into a tube. The flowers are pink, violet or purple and have two lips. Each has four stamens, a long style and fused carpals.


Wild basil occurs in suitable locations in most of Europe, in western and central Asia and in North Africa. Its typical habitat is dry grassland and heathland, usually on limestone or chalky soils.

Anemone ranunculoides

Anemone ranunculoides, the yellow anemone, yellow wood anemone or buttercup anemone, is a species of herbaceous perennial plant that grows in forests across most of Continental Europe, and less frequently in the Mediterranean region. It's occasionally found as a garden escape.

It flowers between March and May in the Northern Hemisphere.
Growing to 5–15 centimetres (2.0–5.9 in) tall, the plant is herbaceous, dying back down to its root-like rhizomes by mid summer. The rhizomes spread just below the earth surface and multiply quickly, contributing to its rapid spread in woodland conditions. The flower is about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) diameter, with from five to eight petal-like segments (actually tepals) of rich yellow colouring.

The plant is widely grown as a garden plant, especially by rock garden and alpine garden enthusiasts. It has been awarded an Award of Garden Merit or AGM, H4 (hardy throughout the British Isles) by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Anemone ranunculoides 'Frank Waley', a larger-growing, more robust cultivar, is sometimes available, as are the miniature subspecies A. ranunculoides subsp. wockeana and a selection known as A. ranunculoides 'Laciniata', with finely divided leaves. There is also a double-flowered cultivar, A. ranunculoides 'Pleniflora' (also sometimes listed as 'Semiplena' or 'Flore Pleno').

Ophrys sphegodes

Ophrys sphegodes, commonly known as the Early Spider-orchid, is a species of orchid found on alkaline meadows and waste land. It is widespread across most of Europe and the middle East from Britain south to Portugal and east to Iran.
In Britain, it is restricted to parts of Dorset, Hampshire, Kent and Sussex and is regarded as rare although where it is found it may be in stands of many hundreds of plants.


It is classified as a British Red Data Book plant. Despite its apparent vulnerability, it has very successfully colonised the chalk spoil dumping grounds created near Dover at Samphire Hoe from the excavations of the Channel Tunnel. It forms stands of relatively short plants between 30 cm and 40 cm in April and May. The flowers have yellow-green sepals and a velvety brown labellum with a distinctive H marking so that the flowers much resemble an arthropod and especially a spider.

Veronica filiformis

Veronica filiformis is a species of flowering plant in the genus Veronica. It is known by many common names, including slender speedwell, creeping speedwell, threadstalk speedwell and Whetzel weed. It is native to eastern Europe and western Asia, and it is known in many other regions as an introduced species and a common weed.

V. filiformis is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing mats of hairy stems that readily root at nodes that touch substrate. It is self-sterile and rarely seeds, being spread by stolons.

The corolla of V. filiformis is four-lobed and blueish with a white tip, around 8–10 mm in diameter, the top lobe being largest since it is actually a fusion of two lobes. At the center are two long, protruding stamens. 

Solitary flowers occur in leaf axils. They are on relatively long, slender stalks that arise from the leaf axils, and appear between April and July. The leaves, found near the base of the stem, are 5–10 mm across, rounded or kidney-shaped with blunt teeth and short stalks, and smaller on distal parts.It is perennial. In Ireland, the plant was sewn into the clothing of travellers for good luck.

A native to northern Turkey and the Caucasus, V. filiformis was introduced to the United Kingdom from Turkey in 1808 as a rock garden plant and was first reported as an escape in 1838. It was introduced to the United States nursery trade in the 1920s and is now generally considered a weed. 
It can be invading of lawns, sod, and turf, and has become naturalised in gardens and grassy paths and on roadsides. It prefers shade, moist soils, good fertility and a low mowing height, and due to the speed at which is spreads, it is often necessary to use herbicides to remove it.

Anacamptis morio

Anacamptis morio, the green-winged orchid or green-veined orchid (synonym Orchis morio) is a flowering plant of the orchid family, Orchidaceae.

It is a native of western Eurasia, ranging from Europe to Iran. In the British Isles it is found in central-southern England, Wales and Ireland. It grows in grassy meadows, especially on limestone-rich soil, reaching a height of 40 cm.

It flowers from late April to June in the British Isles, and as early as February in other countries, such as France. The inflorescence is of various colours, mainly purple but ranging from white, through pink, to deep purple. From 5 to 25 helmet-shaped flowers grow in a loose, linear bunch at the top of the single stalk. The name morio is derived from the Greek word "moros" meaning "fool". This refers to the colorful, green striped flowers. A pair of lateral sepals with prominent green, occasionally purple veins extend laterally like "wings", giving the orchid its name. The broad, three lobed, lower petal is pale in the center with dark spots.

Leaves are lanceolate, or sometimes ovate, and grow in a rosette around the base of the plan, with some thinner leaves clasping the stem and sheathing almost up to the flowers. Leaves are green and unspotted.


It is similar in appearance to the early purple orchid, Orchis mascula, but has green stripes on the two lateral sepals, and lacks the spots or blotches of the Early Purple's leaves.

Iris pseudacorus

Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag, yellow iris, water flag, lever) is a species in the genus Iris, of the family Iridaceae. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa. Its specific epithet, meaning "false acorus," refers to the similarity of its leaves to those of Acorus calamus, as they have a prominently veined mid-rib and sword-like shape.

It is an herbaceous flowering perennial plant, growing to 100–150 centimetres (39–59 in) (or a rare 2 metres (6 ft 7 in)) tall, with erect leaves up to 90 centimetres (35 in) long and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) broad. The flowers are bright yellow, 7–10 centimetres (2.8–3.9 in) across, with the typical iris form. The fruit is a dry capsule 4–7 centimetres (1.6–2.8 in) long, containing numerous pale brown seeds. I. pseudacorus grows best in very wet conditions, and is often common in wetlands, where it tolerates submersion, low pH, and anoxic soils. The plant spreads quickly, by both rhizome and water-dispersed seed. It fills a similar niche to that of Typha and often grows with it, though usually in shallower water. While it is primarily an aquatic plant, the rhizomes can survive prolonged dry conditions.



Large I. pseudacorus stands in western Scotland form a very important feeding and breeding habitat for the endangered corn crake.


I. pseudacorus is one of two iris species native to the United Kingdom, the other being Iris foetidissima (stinking iris).

Salvia patens

alvia patens (sometimes called gentian sage or spreading sage) is a herbaceous perennial that is native to a wide area of central Mexico. It was introduced into horticulture in 1838 and popularized by William Robinson.

Salvia patens is tuberous, and easily lifted for overwintering in a greenhouse. The more common varieties reach 30–60 cm (12–24 in) tall and wide, and are covered with hastate shaped mistletoe-green leaves. Inflorescences reach 15 to 30 cm (5.9 to 11.8 in) or longer, rising well above the leaves. 2.6 cm (1.0 in) pure blue flowers are spaced along the inflorescence, with a 1.3 cm (0.51 in) green calyx that adds to the attractiveness of the flowers.

The specific epithet patens means "spreading".

Salvia patens is frequently treated as an annual by gardeners due to its sensitivity to hard frost, with bedding plants often put out in spring. Varieties have been developed with colors ranging from white to lilac to various shades of blue. Seeds from the Netherlands have been available since the 1990s for rich colored and large flowered varieties. 

The species and its cultivar 'Cambridge blue' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.William Robinson praised the species in the 1933 edition of The English Flower Garden as, "doubtless, the most brilliant in cultivation, being surpassed by and equalled by few other [garden] flowers." A collecting trip to Mexico in 1991 led by James Compton discovered a 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall variety with large deep blue flowers that is available as 'Guanajuato'.