Wildflowers

[jean]

Sadly, the National Wildflower centre has just closed.

[greenilex]

Do we have any idea why?

[ardcarp]

IVY
I don't think most people would think of ivy as a wildflower. Especially not common or garden ivy. Living in a property whose garden is bounded by a a 9' high 200 year old stone wall, I have a love-hate relationship with it. So established is the ivy that total removal would, in places, damage the wall. But as the years roll by, Mrs A and I have come to appreciate many of the fine qualities of this plant. The foremost of its attributes is its wonderful gift to wildlife. Birds love nesting in it...and perching/hiding in it. Snails seem to like it too along with myriad insects and other creepy- crawlies. And the bees just love the flowers...yes, flowers. Ivy, for reasons best known to itself, seems only to produce flowers and fruits when it gets to the top of a wall...and they last for a very long time, making the food source available at unseasonable times. We have come to a truce with ivy. We deliberately let areas of it run free for environmental reasons. Other areas we control for most unworthy cosmetic reasons. I hope Mother Nature will forgive us this compromise.

[french frank]

IVY So established is the ivy that total removal would, in places, damage the wall.

Of course, when allowed to sprawl over fences it damages the fences in the first place - not noticeable until you try to remove it. But, yes, a very useful plant.

I have a fondness for cranesbill geraniums in several varieties. So I value the little herb robert whenever it pops up and treat it as a plant rather than a weed as it grows among its cultivated siblings. The fritillaria meleagris is now in flower in the garden, though in fact I've never come across it in the wild. I was interested to see that there is disagreement as to whether it started out in the UK as a garden plant which became naturalised as an escapee, or whether it was a wildflower that became cultivated.

[jean]

Do we have any idea why?

I have several, but I'd better not post them here. PM me if you're interested.

However the last Private Eye was very damning about the quality of the buildings, and the architect who designed them.

[ardcarp]

This Spring has seen, down here in the Southwest anyway, the most profuse and long-lasting show of primroses in my memory. It looks as if bluebells (the genuine UK variety) will be the same. Sometimes campions intermingle with bluebells, but it looks as if they will be later this year...apart from a few ahead of the game. I wonder if the two-metre strip of land left uncultivated around the margins of fields (which I gather farmers are paid for....EU money?) has contributed greatly to the wildflowers thriving in the banks and hedgerows.

[Lat-Literal]

This Spring has seen, down here in the Southwest anyway, the most profuse and long-lasting show of primroses in my memory. It looks as if bluebells (the genuine UK variety) will be the same. Sometimes campions intermingle with bluebells, but it looks as if they will be later this year...apart from a few ahead of the game. I wonder if the two-metre strip of land left uncultivated around the margins of fields (which I gather farmers are paid for....EU money?) has contributed greatly to the wildflowers thriving in the banks and hedgerows.

"To gain Conservation Grade status, farmers must plant a range of wildlife habitats in return for a contracted premium price for their crop. At least 10% of their farmed area must be devoted to habitats for wildlife and they must follow sustainability criteria. The criteria include setting aside at least 4% of land for pollen and nectar by planting wildflowers and clover, for example on the margins of fields......Approximately 100,000 acres is farmed under Conservation Grade protocols, by over 80 farmers. The scheme provides economic stability by offering contractual premiums for participants' produce, complementing the government's subsidy-linked payments for environmental farm management. The scheme has the potential to plug the funding gap that has arisen from the recent Common Agricultural Policy reforms which will see a shrinkage in environmental subsidies from the EU".

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainability-case-studies-conservation-grade-premium-crop-price

The lack of breeze ensured that the cherry blossom here lasted this year although mostly it is over. The bluebells have also been impressive. Two weeks ago, I walked through a bluebell wood where there were already significant patches of bluebells and I noticed many in the woodland beside quieter roads today. Some wildish flowers are emerging on what I laughingly call my rockery. I am not sure what they are though. I can't say that I have noticed an abundance of primroses etc but may have been looking in the wrong places.

[ardcarp]

Wow, thanks LL. I don't think any farmers in my neck of the woods have actually sown wildflowers. But in effect, their ploughings, fertilisings and (sadly on occasion) herbicidings avoid the margins of fields. This can only enhance the natural spread of wildflowers. Some are very adversely affected by nitrogen-based fertilisers, since coarser things such as grasses tend to overwhelm them.

[ardcarp]

Just resurrecting this thread because here in the Southwest primroses have been even more profuse than last year. And the same applies to cowslips in the places they are the more common. Bluebells are a bit later this year but promising to be spectacular. Some of the lanes are so beautiful, with primroses, wood anemones, violets and suggestions of bluebells atop the banks. No campions yet...apart from the odd one ahead of the game. Three cornered leek still going strong, though wild daffodils (real ones) are now well and truly over. Only seen the odd swallow (I know it's the wrong thread) and no swifts at all yet. Sand martins are back though.

[greenilex]

Have been picking ramsons for a while - I guess that is a local name for three-cornered leek? Grand in salad.

[ardcarp]

I think ramsons is wild garlic, whereas the three-cornered leek...although related...is different. It used to be described as 'rare but locally abundant', but it has spread north and east and is certainly not 'rare' any more, and is even seen by some as an invasive species. Some locals call them 'white bluebells' though of course they're nothing of the sort. Their name derives from the fact that if you feel the flower stems they are definitely triangular in cross-section.

http://wildfeast.co.uk/tag/three-cornered-leek

Maybe even grander in salad?

[oddoneout]

I think ramsons is wild garlic, whereas the three-cornered leek...although related...is different. It used to be described as 'rare but locally abundant', but it has spread north and east and is certainly not 'rare' any more, and is even seen by some as an invasive species. Some locals call them 'white bluebells' though of course they're nothing of the sort. Their name derives from the fact that if you feel the flower stems they are definitely triangular in cross-section.

http://wildfeast.co.uk/tag/three-cornered-leek

Maybe even grander in salad?

Given their status as an invasive non-native(https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/disc...ornered-garlic) it would seem to be desirable to forage the three-cornered leek in quantity, especially the bulbs? Although it's mostly thought of as a West Country problem I have seen here in the East the difficulties it can cause once it gets into a garden, due not just to its colonising nature(seeds attractive to ants so widely distributed) but also its tolerance to seaside conditions.
Ramsons/wild garlic, although the same family, is quite different in both flowers and leaves, and I think is less tolerant of unsuitable conditions so although abundant in suitable locations doesn't have the same takeover propensities outside its preferred habitat.

[ardcarp]

Primroses are out here in the SW, and in our specific locality, genuine wild daffodils are not far off. It has been a bumper year for snowdrops, but someone told me they are not a native species. Is that right? And when does something become a 'native species' on the grounds of sheer persistence?

[Serial_Apologist]

Primroses are out here in the SW, and in our specific locality, genuine wild daffodils are not far off. It has been a bumper year for snowdrops, but someone told me they are not a native species. Is that right?

According to my Bob Press's Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe, distribution of Galanthus nivalis is "From France and Russia south to Pyrenees, Sicily and Greece, introduced further north". So, not a native species.

And when does something become a 'native species' on the grounds of sheer persistence?

Japanese Knotweed?

From memory "native species" refers to place of origination, as opposed to colonisation; sheer persistence wouldn't come into it.

[Bryn]

https://www.biodiversitya-z.org/content/native-species

Species such as the Horse Chestnut, for instance, have become naturalised since their introduction 17th Century but are non-native. They are native to Greece and Albania.