Beech

Beeches (Fagus sylvaticus) are not common at all in Dordogne. In former times they were more common but they have almost disappeared. But here and there, in a hidden shadowy valley or, like here, on the steep slope on the left bank of the Dordogne, you can find them still. Here is rarely sunshine.

Many trees have fallen. The forest is not any longer exploited, to go in with a big machine is impossible on the 45° slope, and prices of timber are too low to justify the felling and skidding. Trees die a natural death here.

A dead trunk of probably a Lime tree is fallen in the river, and Beech leaves are fallen on it. In Perigord, Beeches normally grow together with other deciduous trees as Oaks, Chestnuts, Hornbeams or Lime trees. 

Beeches are majestic trees with stunning autumn colours. Bronze or copper-tinted leaves stay on the branches until deep into December.

All big trees have a small beginning.

Squinancywort

Freezing fog covered everything in white. Also Squinancywort (Asperula cynanchica), a little perennial plant from limestone meadows and rocks and stones. It flowers from the end of summer until winter. It likes a dry and sunny climate, but does not seem to be bothered very much by cold weather.

You cannot say it is a conspicuous plant. A bit greyish, the thin stalks and narrow leaves are a greyish green, even the tiny white-pink flowers are greyish. Leaves there are not many, most of its photosyntheses occurs in stalks.

Like nearly all plants from the Rubiaceae family the flowers are like small crosses formed by the four lobes of the corolla, and after flowering, there are two round fruits on each flower.

To see its beauty you have to really look...

... and look.

Water Chickweed

After a cold night Water Chickweed (Myosoton aquaticum) is not at its best, it is a bit drooping. This little flower grows near water, as here on the Dordogne banks.

Often stinging nettles grow in the same spot, Water Chickweed is a bit more demanding, it needs not only a nitrogen-rich soil, but also a fair amount of water.

You could mistake it for another annual, Common Chickweed, that has the same kind of white flowers. Flowers, opposite leaves and pattern of growth look rather alike, maybe the Water Chickweed is a bit larger.

The day of this photograph the flowers were nearly closed because of the cold. The plant looks delicate but it can live and flower until deep into winter.

Water Finger-grass

This little tropical grass feels at home in Perigord, and more and more also in other places. Water Finger-grass (Paspalum distichum) grows in wet places where the water level changes often, as here in a dead river branch of the Dordogne.

It is considered as a pest because it can cover a large surface in a short period, thanks to its runners that, well, seem to run. It grows so fast other wetland plants can't compete with it. It does not survive cold weather, but last winters haven't been that cold. Ducks, (mallards and other wild duck species) eat it, anyhow.

It is easy to recognize when in flower, and its flowering season goes on from early summer  until November. Every stalk carries two ears, each with dark red pistils and stamina.

The sheaths of new leaves are flattened and sometimes reddish with long white hairs. There is no membraneaous appendice - a ligule - where the sheath ands and the leafs begins

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Yarrow

It has rained and the weather has been mild this October, so Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flowers again. Yarrow is a common plant in grassy and sunny spots, in meadows and roadsides. Stalks of plants that are flowering now are not as long as those in summer, maybe because they have less time to grow high.

The flowers seem to grow in umbels, the little branches that carry flowers all arrive at the same height. With 'real' umbellifers, members of the Apiaceae family, those branches depart all from the same spot at the top of the stalks or branches. Here it is different. Yarrow belongs to another plant family, Asteraceae.

Typical for Asteraceae are composite flowers. That what looks like a flower is in fact a flowerhead made from several small tubular and/or ligulate flowers. In Yarrow, tens of flower heads form together a kind of umbel. Every flower head has three or five ligular flowers with each a round white petal, and in their midst some cream-colored tubular flowers. So there are hundreds of flowers if you count them all.

The leaves are visible nearly all year round. If the grass is mowed the blade does not hurt them  and later on the plant can produce new flowering stems. The leaves are finely divided, so it looks like there are hundreds of leaves also.



 

Field Elm

Autumn leaves begin to fall, and the Field Elm (Ulmus minor) is not late.

Its leaves are toothed and lopsided at their base, but this feature is not visible in the picture above.

For that matter, Field Elm is a tree (or bush) full of symmetry and evenness. The leaves are spaced at equal distances on branches...

... and, then, the little branches are also spaced at equal distances on bigger branches.

On those young trees in winter attire the branches look thick. No, it is not a disease of the bark, it is suberisation. This phenomenen can be found also on other tree species, as the Field Maple (Acer campestre). Crests of cork or thickened bark develop along the boughs. Why? We don't know exactly, may be it as a protection against cold or damage by predators. It seems the tree does not suffer from it.

Anyhow, it is not a symptom of Dutch elm disease, a fungal infection transmitted by a bark beetle, that has led to the dead of many Elm trees all over Europe. Dutch elm disease gives also bark symptoms, but you recognize it mainly because big branches begin to shed leaves  and die.

Sometimes you hear saying that Field Elms went practically extinct because of this disease. In fact, this is not true, you still can find many trees, and especially bushes. Mainly isolated trees have survived. Also the diseasy attacks only bigger branches and trunks, new growths are not affected. Also the number of Scolytus beetles (the vector) seems to have gone down in the last years.

In Perigord Field Elm is very common in hedgerows and wood edges, it is also one of the first ligneous plants that appears in abandoned formerly cultivated fields.

Flowering season is early, light green oval fruits appear in March-April, at the same time as  new leaves.

Stiff Eyebright

Stiff Eyebright (Euphrasia stricta) is a little plant that grows in dry limestone meadows.

Now, at the end of summer, it has only a few flowers left on top of its stalks, the other flowers already fructified.

Midsummer in this flowery meadow it was still surrounded by its hosts, certain grasses and leguminose plants. Hosts? Yes, Stiff Eyebright is a hemiparasite, it has chlorophyll but it feeds also on the roots of other plants. Often around it you see grasses and other plants that are visibly smaller and less developed because of this hemiparasitism.

The flowers are tiny, purple-striped and with a yellow spot on the lower lip. Leaves and bracts toothed.

Burnet Saxifrage

They are everywhere now, the elegant umbels of Burnet Saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga). In limestone meadows and fields it flowers abundantly. It does not need a rich soil, and if it is dry and poor it is even better.

The upper parts of it are glabrous, with thin smooth stalks. There are only a few leaves on the stalks, if any, and they are deeply incised. The important leaves grow in a basal cluster at ground level. They disappear mostly when the plant flowers.






Here some basal leaves. You should think they belong to another species because they are so different, green and rather luscious. But no, it really is Burnet saxifrage.







And this is an umbel in fruit, its rays all have about the same length. Many Apiaceae - plants of the umbellifer family - have a ring of little leaves or bracts at the base of those rays, but Burnet Saxifrage has no involucre.

Autumn will arrive soon, but Burnet Saxifrage will go on flowering for a while.

Sheepbit

The picture here below dates from two weeks ago. Hot wetter last week brought flowering season for Sheepbit (Jasione montana) to an end, the little blue balls have faded away and now the plant is difficult to find. Especially when it hides in high grass and brambles.









The little round flowerheads are composed of several dozen very little bell-shaped flowers. Yes, Sheepbit is a member of the Campanulaceae family, it has also the typical blue colour of this family.

It grows in neglected grasslands and field and wood edges on sandy neutral or acidic soil, often in light shadow, and it is not that common in Perigord.

To carry so many flowers you need a lot of stalks, apparently.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower

A big, rather untidy plant grows in the brambles and bushes on the side of a path. It has a lot of blue flowers.

Nettle-leaved bellflower (Campanula trachelium) produces all summer, and even after it, blue or lilac bell-shaped flowers on long sturdy stalks. It does not like full sunshine so you will find it mostly in the shadow of trees, sometimes together with the Clustered bellflower that now already has stopped flowering.

The flowers are hairy, even inside!

The triangular leaves (yes, like nettle leaves) are also hairy. Here those of a small plant just before it started flowering.

Clustered Bellflower

Clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata) is a species of woodland edges and roadsides. Here, it is hidden in the vegetation along a walking path; Oregano with its pink flowerheads is more striking.

The dark blue little bells grow in clusters along and at the end of the stems. Clustered bellflower begins to flower in June, and in August, it is over; it really is a summer flower.

Sometimes a flowerhead has only a few flowers, on big plants they are larger and fuller.

The leaves are rather long and heart-shaped at their base.

Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort

Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum) is prolific this summer, it has lots of flowers. It can grow nearly a meter high and it grows in marshy or swampy, or at least wettish, areas.

It has quadrangular stalks with distinct ridges. The leaves grow in opposite pairs and they are sessile. From most pairs of leaves emerge flowers.

In the leaves you can see tiny transparant points and sometimes also some small black points. They are just visible to the naked eye, a magnifying glass can be of help. The little black points are glands, and they are typical for hypericums. Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort does not have many of them compared to other species of this family.

The flowers are somewhat untidy little stars, five yellow petals and a bunch of stamens that go in all directions.

Lesser Scullcap

Not far from a the road that runs along a wet and slightly peaty area grows Lesser Scullcap (Scutellaria minor). It needs water and acidic soil to flourish and here, it finds both. In Perigord this kind of habitat is not very common, but in the open spaces of the Bessède forest you can find it. Flora here is very rich, and different from the plants you can find on dry Jurassic or Maestrichtian limestone soils that are more common in Perigord.

On the calyxes of the flowers of Lesser Scullcap grows, strangely enough, a kind of bump, whence its name. The little pink flowers are spotted with purple honey guides.

Perennial Pea

In the early morning there are still some dewdrops on the pink flowers of Perennial Pea (Lathyrus latifolius). They will disappear quickly when it gets hot.

It goes on and on flowering, even in the hot summer weather. Perennial Pea is the largest wild Pea you can find here. It can grow two meters long and, yes, it is a perennial plant. It does not look that big: It could use its tendrils to climb surrounding plants but often it stays near ground level.

Normally with Peas each leaf consists of a pair of folioles with a tendril in between (but of course there are exceptions). Often the stems are winged, this means they have two flattened strips on each side.

Perennial Pea likes borders, of fielsd, roads and woods. Here below it grows between the ferns at the edge of a chestnut wood. You can see the long pods already developing.

Perennial Pea is a near relative of the cultivated Sweet Pea, but in cotrast to this one, the wild plant does not have a particular smell.

Common Chicory

The Big Prize for the bluest flower will probably be given to Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Below, this colour contrasts beautifully against the cereals ready for harvest that surround it. It can be found in cultivated fields, but also in gardens, on roadsides, or in wastelands.

The stalks zigzag everywhere. No leaves are visible any more, they have fallen off when flowering started.

Common Chicory is a sister of garden chicories and endives and, in fact, its leaves are edible, but very bitter, so you are not tempted to add them to a salad.


To see the flowers you should not wait until the end of the day.

You will not see anything but green stalks, the flowers open only in the morning and early afternoon.