Perforate Saint-John's-wort

Perforate Saint-John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a real summer plant. Right now its yellow flowers are nearly everywhere. Roafdsides, abandoned yards, cultivated fields, gardens, forest edges, even in town. It does not especially prefer certain kinds of soil and it can withstand a lot of summer drought. 

Sometimes there are only a few plants, sometimes Saint-John's-wort grows in large colonies, as here in an field left fallow this year.

Every flower has five petals, in the midst of them a paintbrush of stamina. On the rim of the petals there are tiny black spots. Those are glands and they are typical for Saint-John's-worts, nearly all species have them, not only on petals but also on green parts of the plant. 

The stems have many branches and every branch has flowers. There are small, longish leaves.

After flowering and fructification the dead stems do not disappear at once. They turn a reddish brown or nearly black colour. Beautiful with some hoarfrost!

Creeping Thistle

A July morning, just after sunrise, in a fallow field.






The first sun rays lighten up the stalks of all plants here. Most of them are Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) with its white silky heads, and there is also Common Andryala (Andryala integrifolia) with its much smaller yellow flowerheads, still closed at this time of the day.






Some weeks ago it was like this, the Thistles still in full bloom with lilac flowers, and here and there an Andryala. Creeping Thistle is a perennial plant and it can appear in large amounts when circumstances are what they should be. A good soil, not much competition from other plants, laboured but not too recently so last year's plants can develop and spread.





At the lower part of the stem prickly leaves make you don(t want to touch the Creeping Thistle, but upwards the oval flowerheads sit on stems without any thorns. Insects love them. Most common thistle species belong to two genera, Carduus and Cirsium. Species from the first genus have simple pappus hairs without ramifications on their fruits, the pappus hairs of the last genus are like a feather, with ramifications. Well, it is a detail and not easy to see.







Now flowering is over, and the fruits are nearly ripe and ready to fly away.

Bird's Foot Trefoil

If you make a walk in summer you cannot avoid meeting Bird's Foot Trefoil ( (Lotus corniculatus).

 
Here, besides a path between fields left fallow this year it grows abundantly.

 
Hundreds of flowerheads with  butterfly-shaped flowers grow here.

During the day the flowers are turned upwards, but when night falls, they fold downwards. Here, early in the morning when there are still dewdrops around, they are asleep. As the fly seems to be also, it does not look that much awake.

 
Bird's Foot Tréfoil is very variable. There are plants with oval leaves and more or less horizontal branches, and other plants with straight leaves and vertical stems.

There are nearly always some orange flowers between the yellow ones.

 

Now the fruits are developing. They are long straight cylindrical pods, yes, a bit like bird's feet, including nails!