Town plants
Walking around Seaford in winter
There are plenty of wild plants in flower even in January as evidenced by the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt. I go walking most days, and either I walk to my dried flower workshop or for a brisk half hour health walk, and there is often something new to spot.
For my health walk, I do the same route about twice a week. I like it because it only takes half an hour, and has some gentle slopes for exercise, and variation in scenery. But the area I walk is mostly built up, so the flowers I spot are mostly in the pavement or verges. Visiting the same places twice a week means I get to see the same plants at different stages of growth.
![herb robert Geranium robertianum](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/herb-robert-january-e1579885223237-1024x478.jpg)
My walk takes me alongside some allotments, past the entrance to a cemetery with pine trees, along a lime walk, to the edge of Seaford, where the road passes though a thin stand of trees leading to a dog walking field. When I get to the end of town, I loop round and continue home.
Although there are houses nearby, the stand of trees contains a great spotted woodpecker which I sometimes hear, and some long tailed tits. The pine trees in the cemetery attract goldfinches from time to time, and I often hear great tits, starlings and wood pigeons too.
January wildflowers in town
Here are some pics of flowers I spotted in the last two weeks or so. Flowers seen but not photographed this month include: dandelion, daisy, shepherds purse, grounsel, nipplewort, smooth sow-thistle, common chickweed, annual dog’s mercury and red deadnettle.
![speedwell veronica persica](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_20200118_121257-e1579365061900-1024x682.jpg)
![ivy leaved toadflax Cymbalaria muralis](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ivy-leaved-toadflax-1024x768.jpg)
![fern growing on wall](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/fern-wall-1024x768.jpg)
![winter heliotrope petasites fragrans](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_20200111_114153-1024x768.jpg)
![Cow parsley anthriscus sylvestris](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/new-cow-parsley-1024x768.jpg)
![violet](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_20200111_113117-EFFECTS-1024x768.jpg)
![Possible Hairy violet Viola hirta](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hairy-violet-january-e1579885483952-1024x700.jpg)
If you are wondering how I identified the two violets – more in my next post!
End of the month update! Spotted on 29th January: Lesser celandine (was Ranunculus ficaria now Ficaria verna), and snowdrop (although from their size and location I suspect the latter have naturalised from an initial planting).
![lesser celandine](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/IMG_20200129_093929-e1580570998462-1024x732.jpg)
![snowdrop](http://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/IMG_20200129_094546-1024x768.jpg)