Spotting flowers growing wild in South East UK
Summer evening walk with many wildflowers I went for an evening walk after being recommended a visit to Cradle Valley on the outskirts of Seaford. I was particularly looking for Burnt orchids but came across many beautiful flowers including three more orchids: Fragrant orchid, Common Spotted orchids and Pyramidal orchids. Other highlights were finding many…
Flowering around the town This month, either side of my big campervan holiday I wandered around my Sussex hometown to see what wildflowers I could find. Early June blooms on Seaford Head On a hot early summer day I went for a walk looking for Twayblade orchids and found a Common Spotted orchid at the same…
Local floral highlights of May 2021 Flowers of very early May Call me a cheat but I couldn’t resist including these two lovelies from the 30th April! Both the English bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta and Garlic mustard Alliaria petiolata were looking so lush and abundant! In bloom in early May It was about this time that…
A summer of orchids I’m so glad I joined Seaford Natural History Society recently because they really helped me with my orchid spotting this year! Back in May I met Polly who was so helpful showing me the Early purple orchids, Orchis mascula on Seaford Head. She told me about the swathes of Green-winged orchids,…
Out and about in fields with my smartphone I haven’t written a post since April this year. This is not because I’ve lost interest in wildflowers but because, as happens every year, I’ve been too busy spotting them to write about them! Generally I tend to be out and about in spring and summer, then…
Viola riviniana around Sussex in early April In the first five days of April I have spotted Common dog violet, Viola riviniana, in three places in Sussex. This might indicate the relaxing of lockdown as much as anything else! This violet is more delicate looking than the often earlier Sweet violet. It is usually found…
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…
Flowering in my Sussex garden this summer Following on from my similar May blog post about garden wildflowers, here is what was in flower a month later. White herb robert – Geranium robertianium This continues my theme of what is a weed and what is a wildflower? My friend Mercy sent me this plant, which…
Wildflowers on the Local Nature Reserve in June In May when I visited Seaford Head, a Sussex Wildlife Trust ranger advised that I come back in a few weeks to see the difference, so I took her at her word. You could probably tell from my May post that there is a range of different…
A family walk around fields off the Alfriston Road There is a track that runs out of Seaford from Alfriston Rd towards Alciston and passes the Last Wood, I think it’s called The Comp. When I visited with my family in early June the fields contained oil seed rape which was developing seed. My husband…