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

[John Wright]

Ahem, why don't we post images on threads? Like this?

[french frank]

What about goat's rue (Galega officinalis)?



It's vetch-like, flowers white to purplish-lilac. Mainly in southern/central Europe, but naturalised in Britain. Can be found on waste ground, flowers July to September.

NB this description:

"This European introduction is heavily concentrated around the London area where it is a common roadside plant. It occurs in swathes at the side of motorways leading into London but the distribution drops off as you go north. There is little to be found in Scotland, none in Ireland and only a little in Wales."

[Mary Chambers]

That's it! How on earth did you find it? I couldn't! I'm ridiculously grateful - I hate not knowing things, and this one was a real puzzle. I've just checked in Keble Martin, and it's not there, but my copy dates from 1971, and I suppose vegetation changes in forty years, like everything else. I usually find it a very reliable reference book, even now.

Thank you!

[Richard Tarleton]

Well done ff. This is new to me - I've never noticed it. Wrong part of the country

I have an even older Keble Martin than Mary - 1965 (not quite a first edn) but my bible for wild flowers is Francis Rose. My copy is in the office so will look it up on Monday.

I corresponded briefly with Francis Rose, courtesy of a mutual friend, prior to a trip to the Pyrenees, and received pages of beautiful spidery writing on very thin writing paper, and the Firestone map I'd sent him came back covered with spidery annotations - marvellous.

Roadkill is another profitable area of wildlife study for MBers on the move - as well as plentiful foxes and badgers at this time of year I often see polecats in this part of the world. But as a birder I'm normally keeping an eye on the skies. It's amazing how many red kites you see along the M4 corridor these days.

[french frank]

I'm as delighted as you to have come across it.

I can't remember the exact route, but I hit on another source first which gave the names of plants found on motorway verges and goat's rue sounded the most likely - looked at all the images available, and where there seemed to be a 'swathe' (as above) I went to the page.

I only have the pretty Illustrated Flora (Blamey and Grey-Wilson), 1989, and it's in that. So it's proved its worth.


NB The first time I keyed in wildflower white violet motorway verge - Mary's post was the top hit

[amateur51]

I'm as delighted as you to have come across it.

I can't remember the exact route, but I hit on another source first which gave the names of plants found on motorway verges and goat's rue sounded the most likely - looked at all the images available, and where there seemed to be a 'swathe' (as above) I went to the page.

I only have the pretty Illustrated Flora (Blamey and Grey-Wilson), 1989, and it's in that. So it's proved its worth.


NB The first time I keyed in wildflower white violet motorway verge - Mary's post was the top hit

Brava french frank!

This thread has reminded me of the hours I used to spend examining wild flowers, part of 'A' Level biology, learing to use a flora (Clapham, Tutin & Warburg was our text).

Francis Rose and Blamey & Grey-Wilson look excellent - I think it may be time to find my magnifying glass, buy a new notebook & get searching

[DracoM]

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

My first thought. Pernicious weed choking the life out of almost every other species within its gripe.

[french frank]

aka Policeman's Helmet. But I think a motorway verge would possibly be too dry - it favours a moister habitat, especially near the banks of streams.

Yes, the wildlife/woodland volunteers spend many hours trying to uproot and destroy it.

[Mary Chambers]

There's a little lane not far from where I live that used to have the most wonderful selection of wild flowers. Now it's Himalayan Balsam all the way along. The change happened in a very short time.

[umslopogaas]

am 51, I've still got the Clapham Tutin and Warburg excursion flora I had at school when I did A level Botany; I think I knew my way around it better then than I do now, nearly fifty years later!

Himalayan Balsam is an introduced species that has escaped and run amok, as they are prone to do. It is so vigorous and invasive because it has none of the natural enemies that attack it in its native home. As such, it would be a good target for what is known as 'classical' biological control and I suspect my old colleages at CABI Biosciences (as it is now, when I worked there it was the International Institute for Biological Control) have it in their sights. What they will do, when someone gives them the necessary funds, is go to the centre of origin in Nepal and search for specific natural enemies that attack it: they will concentrate on leaf-feeding insects, but will also be looking for fungal pathogens. These will then be brought back to the UK and tested under quarantine for their specificity to the plant. If they find one or more that are deemed sufficiently specific, they will begin the very laborious bureaucratic process of obtaining permission to release them. This is a protracted process, but there have been some stunningly successful examples and once such control is achieved, it is usually permanent.

[french frank]

Himalayan Balsam is an introduced species that has escaped and run amok, as they are prone to do.

Not only that but people grow it in their gardens, like Spanish bluebells, because they make a good show.

In the case of Himalayan Balsam it 'dehisces' and throws out its seeds a great distance. Spanish bluebells are in some ways even worse, because they cross fertilise with native bluebells which gradually lose all their characteristic features. I have a small colony of English bluebells and for the first time this year I found one with the first signs of Hyacinthoides hispanica. If I'm ever arrested, it's likely to be for the wanton destruction of neighbours' gardens

Garden centres often sell them as just 'bluebells' but they're quite different when in flower.

As for guides, my battered, rain-soaked (but dry at present!) little Collins Pocket Guide, text by the Fitters père et fils, has been very useful in the field. The illustrations are again by Marjorie Blamey (but not the same ones as in the Illustrated Flora). It first came out in 1974 but has probably been updated since it has goat's rue in it.

[Serial_Apologist]

From the pics, Himalayan Balsam has pretty little flowers, quite easily mistakeable for the wild pea. In this part of London, the main invasive weed is Japanese Knotweed.

[Mary Chambers]

It looks as if I need a new Flora (actually my new granddaughter was almost called Flora ), but I am so fond of the Rev. Keble Martin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Keble_Martin

[Serial_Apologist]

(actually my new granddaughter was almost called Flora )

Just think, she could more easily have been named Marge...

[jean]

Ahem, why don't we post images on threads?

Perhaps because it's not at all obvious how to do it if you didn't know already?

I've just tried to do it by clicking on the 'image' icon above the posting window, but it told me my file was invalid; if I type [i m g] [/i m g] (without spaces) around the url, it works.