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    Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers
    Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers
    Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers
    Ebook322 pages2 hours

    Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers

    By Bob Gibbons

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    About this ebook

    An accessible guide providing comprehensive detail on 130 of the most common British species of wild flowers.

    A short introduction to the book includes information on the structure of flowers and how to use the guide to identify wild flowers.

    Species are illustrated in more than 150 of the author's remarkable colour photographs.

    Each species account includes a general introduction and description, flowering time and distribution.
    Also available in this series:

    Bloomsbury Pocket Guide to Insects
    Bloomsbury Pocket Guide to Garden Birds
    Bloomsbury Pocket Guide to Trees and Shrubs
    Bloomsbury Pocket Guide to Tracks and Signs
    Bloomsbury Pocket Guide to Mushrooms
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 12, 2015
    ISBN9781472913296
    Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers
    Author

    Bob Gibbons

    Bob Gibbons is a renowned botanist, author and tour leader who is based in Dorset but has travelled across much of Europe and the world in search of wildlife. His previous titles include Wildflower Wonders of the World.

    Read more from Bob Gibbons

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      Book preview

      Pocket Guide To Wild Flowers - Bob Gibbons

      MARSH MARIGOLD

      Caltha palustris

      Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris

      A familiar spring flower of damp and marshy places, Marsh Marigold, or Kingcups, is a robust hairless perennial up to 50cm tall, with thick, hollow stems and shiny, kidney-shaped leaves, of which the lower are stalked, the upper unstalked. The flowers are large, 2–5cm across, and bright golden-yellow. They are made up of five or more petal-like sepals (if you look underneath the flower, there is no obvious green calyx, which helps to distinguish this plant from buttercups). The fruits form a cluster of distinctive pod-like, multi-seeded, erect follicles. Like buttercups, the plants are poisonous, and the flowers have occasionally been used to produce a yellow dye. Marsh Marigold is frequently grown in gardens as an attractive ornamental plant, often in double-flowered forms.

      FLOWERING TIME March–July.

      DISTRIBUTION

      Widespread and frequently abundant in a variety of wet places, both shaded and sunny, including marshes, fens, wet woodland and pastures, from sea level up to at least 1,000m in mountain areas. Generally more abundant in western areas, where suitable habitats are more frequent.

      WOOD ANEMONE

      Anemone nemorosa

      Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa

      Wood Anemones are well known and much loved as one of the first and prettiest flowers of spring, often seen in great abundance in woodland before the leaves of the trees emerge. They are low-growing, usually hairless perennials, rarely taller than 25cm, spreading by rhizomes to form dense clumps. The flowers are white, though often tinged with pink or purple, and about 2–4cm across. As in Marsh Marigold (and some other plants in the buttercup family), the five or more ‘petals’ are actually sepals, with no green calyx below them. The leaves are deeply divided into three or more lobes, sometimes appearing after the flowers, then disappearing quite soon after flowering.

      FLOWERING TIME March–May.

      DISTRIBUTION

      A common plant of woodland, particularly ancient woodland, Wood Anemone flowers spectacularly in early spring. It may also appear in non-woodland habitats such as pastures, hedge-banks and cliff-top grassland, often indicating the past presence of woodland. It is widely cultivated in gardens, especially in the strongly coloured pink and purplish varieties.

      STINKING HELLEBORE

      Helleborus foetidus

      Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus

      This strong-growing, evergreen perennial up to 80cm tall has an unpleasant smell, as its name suggests. There are no basal leaves, but the stem leaves are palmately divided with simple, narrow, dark green, toothed lobes. The flowers are yellowish-green with a red or purple rim, nodding, bell-shaped and 1–3cm across, usually growing in clusters. The bracts that support the flowers are simple and undivided. A cluster of three inflated, beaked fruits, or follicles, develops in the centre after flowering.

      FLOWERING TIME January–April.

      DISTRIBUTION

      An uncommon plant of woodland and scrub, mainly on calcareous soil. Local and mainly in western Britain (though also common as a garden escape); absent from Ireland as a native.

      SIMILAR SPECIES

      Green Hellebore H. viridis differs in having basal leaves, deeply divided bracts and more open, greener flowers. It is an uncommon native in western Britain.

      TRAVELLER’S JOY

      Clematis vitalba

      Traveller’s Joy Clematis vitalba

      Traveller’s Joy is a strong-growing, robust, deciduous, perennial woody climber that in favourable conditions can achieve heights of around 30m, reaching to the top of whatever supports it. The leaves are pinnate, with a few toothed leaflets and twining stems and stalks. The flowers are greenish-white, fragrant and 1–2cm across, grouped into large, dense inflorescences. The four petal-like structures are actually sepals. The plant is most distinctive after flowering, when the fruits develop long, silky plumes (hence another common name for the plant, Old Man’s Beard), which remain conspicuous from late summer into winter. Collectively, the plants are highly visible and distinctive.

      FLOWERING TIME July–August.

      DISTRIBUTION

      Widespread and common in lowland calcareous places, where it is sometimes considered a weed.

      CREEPING BUTTERCUP

      Ranunculus repens

      Creeping Buttercup Ranunculus repens

      Creeping Buttercup is an all-too-familiar plant of gardens and almost any other habitat, where it forms large, dense patches due to its creeping runners that spread and root. It is a hairy perennial up to about 50cm tall, with triangular leaves each divided into three lobes, of which the central one is stalked. The flowers are golden-yellow, on furrowed stalks, with a variable number of petals, usually between five and seven; the sepals are erect and pressed against the petals.

      FLOWERING TIME May–August.

      DISTRIBUTION

      Common as a garden weed throughout Britain and Ireland, it can also be found in grassland, open woodland and arable fields, most frequently where the soil is damp or poorly drained.

      SIMILAR SPECIES

      There are many other similar species of buttercup, broadly the same in appearance but differing in details. One of the most common, Meadow Buttercup R. acris, is more erect, not creeping, with the central lobe of the leaf unstalked and with unfurrowed flower stalks. Another common species, Bulbous Buttercup R. bulbosus, likes drier situations. It has a bulbous base to the stem and the flower sepals are strongly reflexed back down the stem. All three species thrive in open, grassy habitats.

      LESSER CELANDINE

      Ficaria verna (Ranunculus ficaria)

      Lesser Celandine Ficaria verna (Ranunculus ficaria)

      A widespread, familiar, early-flowering, herbaceous perennial, Lesser Celandine is low-growing, rarely reaching 25cm tall, with small, glossy, heart-shaped, long-stalked leaves and tuberous roots. The flowers are bright, shiny yellow, similar to buttercups but with more petals (7–12) and fewer sepals (three instead of five). Although perennial, the plants die back and disappear soon after

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