Any wild flower experts out there? Mauve and white flowers along motorways.

[Mary Chambers]

When I was coming home to the north west from Hertfordshire last week, there were sheets of pale mauve/lilac and white flowers along the verges of the motorways in the south and midlands. They seemed to die out as we got further north. I am usually good at wild flowers, but these were quite unfamiliar to me. We were going too fast to see them properly, but they looked rather plume-shaped with many florets, though I'm not sure of this. There never seemed to be any when we going slowly enough to see them.

Does anyone know what they are?

[Anna]

Himalyan Balsam perhaps? Only thing I can think of at the moment.

[Richard Tarleton]

When I was coming home to the north west from Hertfordshire last week, there were sheets of pale mauve/lilac and white flowers along the verges of the motorways in the south and midlands. They seemed to die out as we got further north. I am usually good at wild flowers, but these were quite unfamiliar to me. We were going too fast to see them properly, but they looked rather plume-shaped with many florets, though I'm not sure of this. There never seemed to be any when we going slowly enough to see them.

Does anyone know what they are?

Red valerian I think! Occurs in swathes of pink and white, popular with butterflies

[Anna]

Red valerian I think! Occurs in swathes of pink and white, popular with butterflies

And a pest once it gets into your garden, but never mauve/lilac is it? Devil's Bit Scabious don't seem to fit the bill either.

[Richard Tarleton]

It's very variable - and given to growing along verges - like buddleia along railway lines! Devils bit scabious a much scarcer wild flower (and larval foodplant of the marsh fritillary)

[Mary Chambers]

Thank you for your replies. I'm familiar with valerian (too familiar!) and Himalayan Balsam, and I'm sure it wasn't either. It was smaller, I think, and much softer colours, rather like Ladysmock, but I don't think it was the right shape for that. It's also the wrong time of year. It's driving me mad! There was a LOT of it.

[french frank]

See if this suggests anything ...

There are other similar sites which help with identification.

[gradus]

Possibly Russian Comfrey?

[Richard Tarleton]

We need a "Guide to wild flower identification at 70 MPH"

[amateur51]

We need a "Guide to wild flower identification at 70 MPH"

[umslopogaas]

Hmm, this is embarrassing, its my field (sorry about that, I should more accurately say my verge) and I should know, but I dont. More information needed:

Pale mauve/lilac and white. Could the coloured and white items be different species?

They need not be native. There are only about 1600 native UK plants, but about ten times as many more non-natives cultivated in gardens and many of them have escaped into the wild. Eg Himalayan Balsam, Giant Knotweed and Giant Hogweed. We have much to thank the Victorians for, including clogging up the Exe valley with Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan Balsam).

Could the white one be meadow rue (Thalictrum flavum)?

And perhaps the lilac one is Buddleia (Buddleja davidii)? There are coloured variants cultivated in gardens, but the wild species is a rampant colonised of disturbed habitats, as we in the profession say. This is the plant that must give British Rail a huge headache, judging by the amount of it you see out of the train window as you travel into West London. There are also white flowered Buddleias, but I dont remember seeing one in the wild.

[Flay]

Red valerian I think! Occurs in swathes of pink and white, popular with butterflies

So that's what I've got all over my garden! Wiki says it's edible. Perhaps not....

Isn't valerian meant to help you sleep?

[Mary Chambers]

We need a "Guide to wild flower identification at 70 MPH"

Indeed! That's the problem. I tried FF's suggested guide, but had to answer "I do not know" so many times that I didn't get very far. I wondered about Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) but again it's the wrong time of year - or possibly some kind of large vetch. What puzzles me most is that I've never noticed it before - I'm an avid watcher of verges! I could swear that this time last year it was all ox-eye daisies. Perhaps it's some kind of garden escape, or a newly invasive alien species. My wild flower book (Keble Martin's Concise British Flora) doesn't help much, for once, but that's where I got the vetch idea - it seemed the same shape and texture, though bigger than any vetch I've ever seen. Perhaps my 'plume-shaped' was misleading. I would guess it was about as big as a wallflower.

White and mauve were different colours of the same flower, I'm sure. Not as large or coarse as buddleia.

[umslopogaas]

Phew. A brief consultation with my 12 volume edition (we pros dont do things by halves) of Sowerby's 'English Botany', dating from the mid 19th century, reveals the following about valerian (and much more, but I cant type all of it out, it would take half the night):

"This plant has been esteemed in medicine for several centuries ... it received the name of All-Heal ... many of its marvellous powers are no longer credited ... it still retains a place in the British Pharmacopoeia ... peculiar odour due to valearianic acid. It is found in nature in the oil of the plant Valerian, also in small proportion in train oil (??? that's what it says), and the oil of cetacea (whales) generally ... (much more on the chemistry) ...

In medicine (it) is much esteemed ... (it) is considered to be a cerebro-spinal stimulant, large doses of it causing marked excitement of the nervous system, not only of the human race, but also of cats, which are extremely fond of it. It is scarcely possible to keep a plant of valerian in a garden which these animals frequent ... It is equally attractive to rats (lucky cats) ... some Asiatic nations prize it as a delicious perfume ... Combined with various bases, the acid furnishes compounds reputed as of great value as antispasmodics." (At this point I think I could do with a dose myself, so I shall desist).

I'm not making this up you know. I havent such power of invention.

[Mary Chambers]

Cats don't seem to take much notice of the valerian in my garden - but I did see a humming-bird hawk moth on it last year, which was exciting. I have far too much valerian in the garden - and I still can't sleep!