Osmanthus heterophyllus (Chinese:t 柊樹, s 柊树, p zhongshu; Japanese: 柊, Hiiragi), variously known as holly osmanthus, holly olive, and false holly, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to eastern Asia in central and southern Japan (Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku, and the Ryukyu Islands) and Taiwan.
It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 2–8 m (7–26 ft) tall. The bark is brown to grey or blackish, cracking into small plates on old plants. The leaves are opposite, 3–7 cm long and 1.5–4 cm broad with a thick, leathery texture, lustrous dark green above, paler yellow-green below; the margin is entire or with one to four large spine-tipped teeth on each side. Spiny leaves predominate on small, young plants (an adaptation to deter browsing animals), while entire leaves predominate higher on larger mature plants out of the reach of animals. The flowers are very fragrant, white, with a four-lobed corolla, the corolla tube 1–2 mm long and the lobes 2.5–5 mm long; they are dioecious, with flowering in the autumn. The fruit is an ovoid dark purple drupe 1.5 cm long and 1 cm diameter, mature in the following summer about 9 months after flowering.
Papaver dubium is a species of poppy known by the common names long-headed poppy and blindeyes. It is a very undemanding species which prefers sandy soils without lime. It is widespread throughout Europe and America.
Papaver dubium is a variable annual, growing to about 60cm in height. It generally flowers in late spring to mid-summer. The flower is large (30-70mm) and showy, with four petals that are lighter red than in the similar Papaver rhoeas, and most commonly without a black spot at the base. The flower stem is usually covered with coarse hairs that are closely appressed to the surface, helping to distinguish it from P. rhoeas in which the hairs are more usually patent, held at right angles to the stem. The capsules are hairless, elongated to more than twice as tall as they are wide, tapering slightly at the tip, with a stigma generally less wide than the capsule. The plant exudes white to yellowish latex when the tissues are broken. The species can form a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed.
Sedum reflexum or Sedum rupestre, also known as reflexed stonecrop, Jenny's stonecrop, blue stonecrop, stone orpine and prick-madam, is a species of perennial succulent plant of the genus Sedum, native to northern, central, and southwestern Europe.
The Sedum reflexum plants are typically up to 10 cm high, with sprawling stems and stiff foliage resembling spruce branches, with softer tissue. The leaves are frequently blue-gray to gray but range to light greens and yellows; the flowers are yellow. Like most other Sedum species, it has a prostrate, spreading habit.
Sedum reflexum is a popular ornamental plant, grown in gardens, containers, and as houseplants. It is drought-tolerant. There are named cultivars with variegated (multi-colored) leaves.
This sedum is prone to fasciation (cristate forms), which produces attractive cactus-like forms, with irregular curves. However it reverts easily, so all normal offshoots need to be removed quickly to maintain the cristate form.
S. reflexum is occasionally used as a salad leaf or herb in Europe, including the United Kingdom. It is said to have a slightly astringent or sour taste.
Sedum acre, commonly known as the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum, biting stonecrop, and wallpepper, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. It is native to Europe, but also naturalised in North America, Japan and New Zealand.
Biting stonecrop is a tufted perennial herb that forms mat-like stands some 5 to 12 cm (2 to 5 in) tall. Much of the year the stems are short, semi prostrate and densely clad in leaves. At the flowering time in June and July, the stems lengthen and are erect, somewhat limp and often pinkish-brown with the leaves further apart. The leaves are alternate, fleshy and shortly cylindrical with a rounded tip. They are also sometimes tinged with red. The starry flowers form a three to six-flowered cyme. The calyx has five fleshy sepals fused at the base, the corolla consists of five regular bright yellow petals, there are ten stamens, a separate gynoecium and five pistils. The fruit is five united, many-seeded follicles. The leaves contain an acrid fluid that can cause skin rashes.
Biting stonecrop is a low-growing plant that cannot compete with more vigorous, fast-growing species. It is specially adapted for growing on thin dry soils and can be found on shingle, beaches, drystone walls, dry banks, seashore rocks, roadside verges, wasteland and in sandy meadows near the sea.
Pinguicula primuliflora ( /ˌpɪˈŋgwɪkjələ ˌpɹɪmjʊləˈfloːɹə/ ), commonly known as the southern butterwort or primrose butterwort, is a species of carnivorous plant belonging to the genus Pinguicula. It is native to the southeastern United States. The typical variety forms a white flower in blooming. Like other butterworts, it has sticky adhesive leaves which attract, capture and digest arthropod prey in order to supply the plant with nutrients such as nitrogen not found in the nutrient poor, acidic soil that it grows in. Its name derives from the fact it is usually the first one to flower in the spring.
Like all Pinguicula, the roots are undeveloped, and are mainly used to absorb water and anchor the plant, nutrients are absorbed through carnivory.
Pinguicula primuliflora, like all members of the family Lentibulariaceae, is carnivorous. Their leaves are covered with tiny hairs which secrete a mucilagenous liquid. This gives the leaves a wet appearance and is believed to attract insects in search of water. As soon as an insect lands on the leaves, it becomes ensnared in the mucilage; as it struggles, it gathers more of the liquid on it. The plant responds by secreting digestive enzymes that dissolve and digest the insides of the prey, creating a nutrient soup which the plant then absorbs. The leaves of P. primuliflora are green.
Cultivation
Pinguicula primuliflora is an ideal beginners first butterwort in cultivation. It is typically easy to grow, and does not require high humidity, nor extremely intense lighting to flower and create sticky, carnivorous leaves. It can be propagated by selfing, or, more effectively, through cross pollination with another plant. P. primuliflora has known to be quite the weed in cultivation, it is not unusual to find many shoots coming out from the plant, which can eventually take over the pot and may need maintenance. P. primuliflora requires the basics of any carnivorous plant; it needs poor, acidic soil, such as 50/50 peat moss and perlite or horticultural sand mix, or pure sphagnum peat moss mix, with no potting soil or fertilizer. P. primuliflora, along with some other butterworts, can be grown in a tray of standing water to increase humidity and maintain soil moisture.
The leaves are spirally arranged, linear to arrowhead-shaped, 2–5 cm long and alternate, with a 1–3 cm petiole. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 1-2.5 cm diameter, white or pale pink, with five slightly darker pink radial stripes. Flowering occurs in the mid-summer, when white to pale pink, funnel-shaped flowers develop. Flowers are approximately 0.75-1 in. (1.9-2.5 cm) across and are subtended by small bracts. Fruit are light brown, rounded and 1/8 in. (0.3 cm) wide. Each fruit contains 2 seeds that are eaten by birds and can remain viable in the soil for decades.
Although it produces attractive flowers, it is often unwelcome in gardens as a nuisance weed due to its rapid growth and choking of cultivated plants. It was most likely introduced into North America as a contaminant in crop seed as early as 1739, as an invasive species. Plants typically inhabit roadsides, grasslands and also along streams. Its dense mats invade agricultural fields and reduce crop yields; it is estimated that crop losses due to this plant in the United States exceeded US$377 million in the year 1998 alone.
In one of the tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Our Lady's Little Glass, this flower is used by Our Lady to drink wine with when she helps free a wagoner's cart. The story goes on to say that "the little flower is still always called Our Lady's Little Glass."
Ecological Impacts
Field bindweed intertwines and topples native species. It competes with other species for sunlight, moisture and nutrients. It poses threats to restoration efforts and riparian corridors by choking out grasses and forbs. It can decrease habitat biodiversity. It is one of the most serious weeds of agricultural fields in temperate regions of the world.
Calendula maritima, known as the sea marigold and trailing calendula, is a very rare species from the family of Asteraceae. Some scientists regarded it as Calendula suffruticosa subspecies maritima.
This halophyte plant is endemic to the western part of Sicily in small coastal habitats, and is a critically endangered species. As of 2012, this plant could still be found in only five small sites in East Sicily. The Province of Trapani has chosen the plant as its official symbol. The sea marigold occurs only on the Sicilian coast: on the island mainland between Marsala and the Monte Cofano; and on the two nearby islets Isola Grande dello Stagnone and Isola la Formica. The most significant population is in a small 10-km2 (3.9-mi2) nature reserve area within the Riserva Naturale Saline di Trapani e Paceco.
It is on the IUCN Red List of critically endangered plant species.
This perennial plant reaches a height between 20 and 40 cm (7.9 and 15.7 in). The stems can be easily lignified on the underparts and the leaves are covered with short sticky hairs. The young stems are at first erect, but later they begin to hang and spread on the soil.
In contrast to Calendula officinalis (pot marigold), the leaves are fleshy and have a strong smell. The form of the leaves varies from egg-shaped to linear depending on their placement on the stems.
The basket-shaped blossoms consists of pale to bright yellow single-standing petals, and have a diameter between 3 and 5 cm (1.2 and 2.0 in). The main flowering period is from May to June.
The sea marigold is cultivated as an ornamental plant, used as a flowering groundcover and container plant. Cultivars such as the yellow flowering 'Skyfire' and 'Summerlovers Skyfire Yellow', are commonly planted in gardens, parks, and street and highway median plantings; and in flower pots on patios and balconies.
Geranium sanguineum, common names bloody crane's-bill or bloody geranium, is a species of hardy flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the cranesbill family Geraniaceae. It is also the county flower of Northumberland.
The genus name is derived from the Greek γέρανος ("géranos"), meaning crane, with reference to the appearance of the fruit capsule. The specific Latin name sanguineum refers to the red color assumed by the leaves in Autumn.
Geranium sanguineum is native to Europe and temperate Asia. It is widespread in most of Europe up to Caucasus. In the north-east of Ireland it is a rare garden escape.
The typical habitat of this species is grassland, sand dunes and open woodland on calcareous soils, including rocky slopes. It prefers calcareous soils with neutral pH, with low nutritional value, at an altitude of 0–1,200 metres (0–3,937 ft) above sea level.
Potentilla villosa is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. Its common names include villous cinquefoil, northern cinquefoil,and hairy cinquefoil. It is native to northwestern North America, where its distribution extends from Alaska to Alberta to Oregon. There are records from eastern Asia.
This is a coastal plant. It occurs on coastal bluffs and beaches, and in meadows, tundra, and alpine talus.
This is a rhizomatous perennial herb with a tuft of several hairy to woolly stems growing from a thick base covered in previous seasons' dead foliage. The stems are up to 20 to 30 centimeters tall. The thick, leathery basal leaves are compound, divided into three veiny, toothed leaflets with woolly to silky-haired undersides. There may be a few leaves higher on the stem which are nearly the same size. The inflorescence bears one to five flowers. The flower has a five-lobed calyx and five bractlets at the base. The bowl-shaped corolla has five notched yellow petals each up to 1.2 centimeters long. Each petal is marked with an orange basal spot. There are usually 20 stamens at the center. Flowering occurs in July through September. The fruit is an achene, borne in clusters.
Succisa pratensis Moench, also known as devil's-bit or devil's-bit scabious, is a flowering plant in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. It differs from other similar species in that it has 4-lobed flowers, whereas small scabious and field scabious have 5 lobes and hence it has been placed in a separate genus in the same family. It also grows on damper ground.
Species of scabious were used to treat scabies, and other afflictions of the skin including sores caused by the Bubonic Plague. The word scabies comes from the Latin word for "scratch" (scabere). The short black root was in folk tales bitten off by the devil, angry at the plant's ability to cure these ailments, in anger against the Virgin Mary, or as part of some 'devilish plot'.
Succisa pratensis is a perennial herb up to 1m tall, growing from a basal rosette of simple or distantly-toothed, lanceolate leaves. Its unlobed leaves distinguish it from Knautia arvensis (Field scabious). The plant may be distinguished from Centaurea scabiosa (greater knapweed) by having its leaves in opposite pairs, not alternate as in knapweed. The bluish to violet (occasionally pink) flowers are borne in tight compound flower heads or capitula. Individual flowers are tetramerous, with a four-lobed epicalyx and calyx and a four-lobed corolla. Male and female flowers are produced on different flower heads (gynodioecious), the female flower heads being smaller. The flowering period in the British Isles is from June until October.
Cytisus scoparius, the common broom or Scotch broom, syn. Sarothamnus scoparius, is a perennial leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom, but this name is also used for other members of the Genisteae tribe, such as French broom or Spanish broom, and the term common broom is sometimes used for clarification. In other English-speaking countries, the most prevalent common name is Scotch broom (or Scot's broom); English broom is also occasionally used.
Plants of Cytisus scoparius typically grow to 1–3 m (3.3–9.8 ft) tall, rarely to 4 m (13 ft), with main stems up to 5 cm (2.0 in)thick, rarely 10 cm (3.9 in). The shrubs have green shoots with small deciduous trifoliate leaves 5–15 mm long, and in spring and summer is covered in profuse golden yellow flowers 20–30 mm from top to bottom and 15–20 mm wide. Flowering occurs after 50–80 growing degree days. In late summer, its legumes (seed pods) mature black, 2–3 cm long, 8 mm broad and 2–3 mm thick; they burst open, often with an audible crack, forcibly throwing seed from the parent plant. This is the hardiest species of broom, tolerating temperatures down to about −25 °C (−13 °F). C. scoparius contains toxic alkaloids that depress the heart and nervous system.
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) is a flowering plant belonging to the family Lythraceae. It should not be confused with other plants sharing the name loosestrife that are members of the family Primulaceae. Other names include spiked loosestrife, or purple lythrum.
Lythrum salicaria is a herbaceous perennial plant, that can grow 1–2 m tall, forming clonal colonies 1.5 m or more in width with numerous erect stems growing from a single woody root mass. The stems are reddish-purple or red to purple and square in cross-section. The leaves are lanceolate, 3–10 cm long and 5–15 mm broad, downy and sessile, and arranged opposite or in whorls of three.
The flowers are reddish purple, 10–20 mm diameter, with six petals (occasionally five) and 12 stamens, and are clustered tightly in the axils of bracts or leaves; there are three different flower types, with the stamens and style of different lengths, short, medium or long; each flower type can only be pollinated by one of the other types, not the same type, thus ensuring cross-pollination between different plants.
The flowers are visited by many types of insects, and can be characterized by a generalized pollination syndrome.
The fruit is a small 3–4 mm capsule containing numerous minute seeds. Flowering lasts throughout the summer. When the seeds are mature, the leaves often turn bright red through dehydration in early autumn; the red colour may last for almost two weeks. The dead stalks from previous growing seasons are brown.
Campanula glomerata, known by the common names clustered bellflower or Dane's blood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Campanula, belonging to the family Campanulaceae. It is the county flower of Rutland, England.
The etymology of this plant is quite intuitive: the genus Latin name (“campanula”), meaning small bell, refers to the bell-shape of the flower, while the specific name ("glomerata") refers to the tight grouping of the flowers at the top of the stem.
Campanula glomerata is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to a height of 20–60 centimetres (7.9–23.6 in), with a maximum of 90 centimetres (35 in). The stem is simple, erect and shortly pubescent, basal leaves are petiolated, oval-lanceolate and lightly heart-shaped (cordate), while cauline leaves are lanceolate, sessile and amplexicaul. The inflorescence is formed by 15-20 sessile, actinomorphic and hermaphrodite single flowers of about 2 to 3 cm. They are in terminal racemes or in the axils of upper leaves, surrounded by an involucre of bracts. The corolla is campanulate and pubescent with five dark violet-blue or purplish-blue petals. Flowering period is from June to September.
The species is native to the North Temperate Zone of Eurasia, from Europe to Japan. In Europe it is present almost everywhere except the extreme north. In North America the plant is naturalized.
This plant can be found in forests or dry grasslands, in scrub and open woodland, in grassy but not too wet places, in the edges of woods and along the margins of roads and trails. It prefers calcareous soils, at an altitude up to 1,500 m (4,921 ft) above sea level.
Cyclamen repandum, the spring sowbread, is a species of flowering plant of the family Primulaceae, native to southern Europe and some Mediterranean islands. It is the most widespread of a group of cyclamens (genus Cyclamen subgenus Psilanthum) with wide, heart-shaped leaves, often coarsely toothed or lobed, and late spring-blooming flowers with long, slender petals.
Cyclamen repandum grows in rocky areas, shrubland, and woodland near the Mediterranean from southeastern France through Italy to Serbia and on Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. The tuber of the C. repandum group roots only from the center of the bottom. Leaves are dark green with a lighter arrowhead pattern, not speckled. Flowers are deep carmine-pink or white, without a darker nose. They lack the auricles present in Cyclamen hederifolium.
Hieracium pilosella (syn. Pilosella officinarum), known as mouse-ear hawkweed, is a yellow-flowered species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae, native to Europe and northern Asia. It produces single, lemon-coloured inflorescences. It is an allelopathic plant. Like most hawkweed species, it is highly variable and is a member of a species complex of several dozens of subspecies and hundreds of varieties and forms.
It is a hispid (hairy) perennial plant, with a basal rosette of leaves. The whole plant, with the exception of the flower parts, is covered in glandular hairs, usually whitish, sometimes reddish on the stem. The rosette leaves are entire, acute to blunt, and range from 1–12 centimetres (0.39–4.72 in) long and 0.5–2 centimetres (0.20–0.79 in) broad. Their underside is tomentose (covered with hair). The flowering stem (scape) is generally between 5–50 centimetres (2.0–19.7 in) tall, and sprouts from the centre of the basal rosette. The flowerheads are borne singly on the scape and are a pale lemon-yellow colour, with the outermost ligules having a reddish underside. It flowers from May until August and the flowers are visited by various groups of insects, especially flies.
The plant favours dry, sunny areas. It grows well on sandy and similarly less fertile ground types. It produces stolons are which generate a new rosette at their extremity, each rosette has the possibility of developing into a new clone forming dense mats in open space. It also propagates by seeds.
It is a known allelopathic plant, whose roots secrete several substances inhibiting root growth, including its own. It can be controlled through rotation with clover and grasses where possible.
Recent research claims that Hieracium pilosella exhibits an atavism by the reemergence of sexual reproduction.
Primula elatior, the oxlip (or true oxlip), is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to nutrient-poor and calcium-rich damp woods and meadows throughout Europe, with northern borders in Denmark and southern parts of Sweden, eastwards to the Altai Mountains and on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. In the British Isles, it is rarely seen outside East Anglia. It may be found near settlements, as far north as northern Norway, after escaping cultivation.
The oxlip is a herbaceous, perennial plant growing to 30 cm (12 in) tall by 25 cm (10 in) broad, with a rosette of leaves 5–15 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. It produces light yellow flowers in spring, in clusters of 10-30 together on a single stem 10–30 cm (4–12 in) tall, each flower 9–15 mm broad.
The specific epithet elatior means "taller".[3] The common name "oxlip", from "ox" and "slip", may refer to the fact that oxlips (and cowslips) are often found in boggy pasture used by cattle.
It may be confused with the closely related Primula veris (cowslip), which has a similar general appearance, although P. veris has smaller, bell-shaped, bright yellow flowers (and red dots inside the flower), and a corolla tube without folds. The leaves of P. veris are more spade-shaped than P. elatior.
The flower heads on the oxlip all hang in the one general direction, which distinguishes it from the similar False Oxlip, a Primrose/Cowslip natural hybrid, where the blooms are distributed all around the stem.
The oxlip was voted the County flower of Suffolk in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife.
Helleborus foetidus, known variously as stinking hellebore, dungwort, setterwort and bear's foot, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to the mountainous regions of Central and Southern Europe, Greece and Asia Minor. It is found wild in many parts of England, especially on limestone soil.
It is an evergreen perennial growing to 80 cm (31 in) tall and 100 cm (39 in) across, with a thick succulent stem and glossy leaves. The drooping cup-shaped flowers appear in spring, and are yellowish-green, often with a purple edge to the five petal-like sepals on strongly upright stems. The flowers, typically for the family, contain numerous stamens as well as up to ten nectaries which make them attractive to bees and other insects. Each flower produces up to five (usually three) wrinkled follicles. Despite its common name, it is not noticeably malodorous, although the foliage is pungent when crushed.
All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing glycosides. Symptoms of intoxication include violent vomiting and delirium.
Yeasts colonise the nectaries of stinking hellebore and their presence has been found to raise the temperature of the flower, which may aid in attracting pollinators to the flower by increasing the evaporation of volatile organic compounds. It was the first species in which this effect was discovered.
H. foetidus is grown in gardens for its handsome evergreen foliage and large numbers of green, bell-shaped flowers borne in late winter. It prefers woodland conditions with deep, fertile, moist, humus rich, well-drained soil, and dappled shade. The species is, however, drought-tolerant. It often occurs naturally on chalk or limestone soils.
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
The cultivar 'Green Giant' has very bright green flowers and finely divided foliage; 'Miss Jekyll' has fragrant flowers, intensity varying with the time of day; 'Wester Flisk Group' has red-tinted leaves and stems and gray-green flowers; the 'Sierra Nevada Group' is dwarf, reaching 30 cm.
Propagation is by division or from seed, which can be prolific, naturalising well in ideal conditions. Rodents should be kept away from the garden since they depredate the seeds either when still in fruiting plants within the carpels or from the floor after seed release.
Anemone narcissiflora, the narcissus anemone or narcissus-flowered anemone, is a herbaceous perennial in the genus Anemone and the buttercup family.
Plants grow 7 to 60 cm tall, from a caudex (woody-like perennial base), flowering spring to mid summer but often found flowering till late summer. They have 3-10 basal leaves that are ternate (arranged with three leaflets), rounded to rounded triangular in shape with 4-to-20-millimetre long petioles.
The flowers are produced in clusters (umbels) with 2 to 8 flowers, but often appear singly. The inflorescence have 3 leaf-like bracts similar in appearance to the basal leaves but simple and greatly reduced in size, pinnatifid in shape. Flowers have no petals, but instead have 5-9 petal-like sepals that are white, blue-tinted white or yellow in color. The flowers usually have 40 to 80 stamens but can have up to 100.
After flowering, fruits are produced in rounded heads with 5–14-centimetre long pedicels. When the fruits, called achenes, are ripe they are ellipsoid to ovate in outline, flat in shape and 5 to 9 millimetres (3⁄16 to 11⁄32 in) long and 4–6 millimetres wide. The achenes are winged with no hairs and have 0.8–1.5-millimetre long beaks that are curved or recurved.
Anemone narcissiflora is native to north western North America and Eurasia where it can be found growing in high mountain alpine grasslands, in thickets, grassy meadows with moist soils, tundra, open woods, along roadsides and in pastures.
Geum rivale, the water avens, is a flowering plant of the family Rosaceae. Other names for the plant are nodding avens, drooping avens, cure-all, water flower and indian chocolate. It is native to much of Europe, with the exception of Mediterranean areas, as well as some parts of Central Asia and North America. In North America, it is known as purple avens. It grows in bogs and damp meadows, and produces nodding red flowers from May to September.
The plant is a native perennial of slow-draining or wet soils and can tolerate mildly acidic to calcareous conditions in full sun or under partial shade.
Habitats include stream sides, pond edges, damp deciduous woodland and hay meadows.
G. rivale is pollinated primarily by bees, less often by flies and beetles. As the flower matures, elongation of the stamens ensures it self-fertilises if not already cross-pollinated. The flowers stigmas mature before the stamens. It begins flowering a little earlier than G. urbanum, so early pollinations will be within the gene-pool of the single species. The seeds of Water Avens are burr-like, and are distributed after being caught in the coats of rabbits and other small mammals, and by rhizomal growth
Osmanthus heterophyllus (Chinese:t 柊樹, s 柊树, p zhongshu; Japanese: 柊, Hiiragi), variously known as holly osmanthus, holly olive, and false holly, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to eastern Asia in central and southern Japan (Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku, and the Ryukyu Islands) and Taiwan.
