Marsh Scullcap

This little plant grows in places where the soil is wet and disturbed by let's say tractors or wild boar. It is rather common and flowers at the end of summer, sometimes in large amounts. It even grows in corn fields, if there has been enough rain.

Apparently it can grow even when herbicides applied in spring have done their work.






Marsh Scullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) is an at first sight rather inconspicuous member of the Mint (Lamiaceae) family. It is not even aromatic, like most other Mints.







Flowers always appear two by two. In the picture the 'scullcap' is clearly visible; a kind of helmet-like protrusion on the calyx. What function does it have? No idea.






Here a well-developed plant, new square branches are developing above the leaves of the main stem. And how pretty are the flowers!

Guelder Rose

It is berry season, and this year there is a lot to eat for the birds.





As, for an exemple, the fruits of the Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus). Its boughs bend over under their weight. The berries come in bunches and they are round, shiny, slightly transparent drupes.






A ray of sunshine embellishes them still more. The leaves, lobed like Maple leaves, already begin to change into autumn colour.






The flowers also are not to be overlooked. They appear in May. The small flowers in the centre of the corymb are fertile, the larger ones on the outside are not. They make the flowering more visible to insects.






Guelder Rose is a bush that grows on humid soils. Here they screen a small stream from our view.

Marsh Fern

Most ferns need humid surrounding to feel at ease and the Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris) still more than most other ferns. This beautiful plant is rather uncommon, probably because its prefered habitats, marshlands and wetlands, get more and more scarce.






Here it grows in a wet meadow besides a small stream, nearly hidden between Irises and Sedges. Its roots spread and its fronds grow everywhere.






They are a beautiful tender green and subtly pinnate.






Fertile fronds are somewhat larger. Edges of the pinnules are curled around masses of dark spores.






No, a bit of an inundation is not a problem. In spring, when all streams and ponds overflow, its new fronds just go on unfirling towards the light.