Water loving wildflowers of Lechlade

Mike and I stayed in a moored narrowboat for the weekend in Lechlade which is on the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. We went for some lovely walks along the river Thames and visited nearby Buscot Park.

July riverside flora

Who needs net curtains when you’ve got Meadowsweet and Willowherb alongside?

Meadowsweet – Filipendula ulmaria

Great Willowherb – Epilobium hirsutum

Nearby in the marina:

Purple Loosestrife – Lythrum salicaria

Bristly Oxtongue – Picris echioides

I was familiar with this, having learnt it recently with Seaford Natural History Society who had been recording selected wildflowers over the summer. It has distinctive blistered foliage.

Wild Angelica – Angelica sylvestris

This seems the most likely candidate out of all the white umbellifers, having looked at its foliage.

Common Centaury – Centaurium erythraea

We visited Buscot Park for the pre-Raphaelite art rather than the wildflowers, but did spot this Centaury in the grounds – I haven’t seen the white form before.

Walking along the river again near Lechlade:

Marsh Woundwort – Stachys palustris

This Woundwort was new to me.

Water Figwort – Scrophularia auriculata

I hadn’t seen this before either – apparently the flowers are shaped like an ear, hence the name but unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough for a good flower pic.

Water Forget-me-not – Myosotis scorpioides

Rush – Juncus

With loads of flowering Willowherb on the opposite rive bank. I haven’t started to learn about the I.D. of Rushes yet.

Greater Burdock – Arctium lappa

This is another plant that I’d recently learnt. Locally we have a lot of Lesser Burdock Arctium minus which has much shorter flower stems.

Indian Balsam – Impatiens glandulifera

Invasive Balsam at least has the benefit that it’s enjoyed by the bees, which I’ve noticed before.

Hawks-beard – Crepis

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that yellow flowers like this are hard to separate, so I’m not going to go further than the Genus Crepis. This one caught my eye as it was so large and blousy.

Wild Teasel – Dipsacus fullonum

This was another plant the bees seemed to like a lot.

Common Fleabane – Pulicaria dysenterica

Scentless Mayweed – Tripleurospermum inodorum

Carrot family

This was growing in long grass on the riverbank and I thought it might be some sort of Pignut but the leaves didn’t look right. It wasn’t substantial enough to be Cow Parsley.

Water Mint – Mentha aquatica

Common Comfrey – Symphytum officinale

Silverweed – Potentilla anserina

False Oat – Arrhenatherum elatius

Although I don’t really do grasses, I was more confident about identifying this one as it was pointed out to me on a walk a few days previously.

Previous river walks include along the River Test in Hampshire and the Stour in Kent.

I’ve also walked along the Thames nearer to London in Surrey.