Wildflowers of September

On my usual half-hour health walk I passed through the Last Meadow (a dog walking field on the outskirts of town) and found a few interesting plants that weren’t in flower when I last visited in June.

Possible Tall melilot – Melilotus altissimus

I haven’t seen tall melilot before although I was quite confident in my ID of Ribbed melilot recently. I think this plant has very similar trifoliate leaves with slightly serrated edges but no sign of elliptical racemes and the whole plant is leggier.

Red clover – Trifolium pratense

The flowers in this clover pic are slightly out of focus but the markings on the leaves are really clear, which is one of its ID points as you can see on my clover page.

Perforate St Johns Wort – Hypericum perforatum

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how often I have spotted this plant in Kent and Sussex. Perforate St Johns Wort is easily identifiable by the blistered leaves which appear perforated when you hold them up to the light, and tiny black dots around the outside of the petals.

Michaelmas daisy – Aster

Apparently there is some confusion of the exact ID of Michaelmas daisies in the UK so I won’t go as far as adding a species name.

Marjoram – Origanum vulgare

I found this rather nice page about Marjoram on the Plantlife website – it is common in grassland in the South of England. The pink / purple flower is up to about 30cm tall with a distinctive scent when the leaves are crushed.

Yarrow – Achillea millefolium

Sorry what an awful photo but at least it’s evidence that I saw it in flower (white flower with ferny foliage) – I was having a bad photography day!

I believe the meadow was mowed in the Autumn not long after this visit.