Siberian spurge

Open limestone slopes still look rather barren. The flowers that are in bloom now are mostly small species, the 'big flowering' begins in May. This Siberian Spurge(Euphorbia seguieriana) is larger and it does not have much competition just now.

Its luminous yellow-green tufts grow here and there.

It is easy to recognize as a real spurge with its typical flowers. Little hanging balls inside each flower are the young fruits.

Its leaves are bluish green and narrow as those of conifers, but not as stiff, they are soft to touch. The image is taken in summer, the umbel on the left is completely dried out.

How festive all this new green is!

Oneseed Hawthorn

At this moment there is an explosion of flowering in white. The main responsability for this conflagration is shared by several plants, of which the most important is doubtless Oneseed Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna).

Here you see it, a small tree, behind a cloud of Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris).

How beautiful it is, this Hawthorn! And then, it has a sweet scent!

If you look at a flower in detail you see it has only one style (and one ovary also, but that is invisibly hidden at the bottom of the flower where the fruit will develop). That's why there is 'monogyna' in its name. Stamina with pink pollen surround it.

Oneseed Hawthorn grows in hedgerows, woodland edges and even in the shade in the midst of a forest. Often its branches entwine with those of other trees and bushes.

In autumn its leaves in the shape of little hands turn yellow. Some dark red fruits are still there, waiting for birds to come and eat them.

Wall Speedwell

Most Speedwells have blue flowers and Wall Speedwell (Veronica arvensis) is no exception. And its flowers are really tiny.

As is also the whole plant, here early in the season in a dry meadow.

In its corolla the petals are joint together to form a kind of funnel. Every plant makes a lot of flowers but because they are short-lived and easily fall off you mostly see buds and fruits.

The fruits are heart-shaped with often a remnant of a style still visible. The stalks get longer after flowering to make place for all those fruits.

Wall Speedwell is a common plant. As it name says, it grows on top of stone walls but also in fields, gardens and open spaces in meadows. Or as here in a spot where last year someone made a fire of branches.

'Glaucous Hawkweed'

It all began with those dark-spotted leaves. Beautiful leaves.

The wine-red colour of the spots can be intense or more subdued, and those leaves are downy.

Like the young stalks.

Now sunflower-yellow flowers have appeared. Flowering of 'Glaucous Hawkweed' (Hieracium glaucinum, no English name) begins when new green leaves show on trees, before most other Hawkweeds begin to bloom. The ligulate flowers are dented, as if a small animal came to nibble them.

Often they grow in groups.

'Glaucous Hawkweed' brightens up forest fringes on limestone soil. Its flowering does not take long, when May arrives, it is already over.

Later in the season. Eaten by aphids, the plant still carries fluffy balls with seeds.

Early Forget-me-not

The leaves of this small Early Forget-me-not (Myosotis ramosissima) show some red. Cold night made it produce a pigment, anthocyane, that protects the plant against cold. It needs it, the limestone meadows with sparse vegetation where it grows are early in spring well exposed to wind and cold. As in the daytime to cruel sunrays. Plants that live here have to cope with difficult circumstances.





Early Forget-me-not flowers with a lot of blue flowers. A special blue, typical for Forget-me-nots. Baby-blue, with sometimes a little pink or yellow or white, also baby.






Before flowering the cymes carrying flower buds are curved inwards like unrolling fern fronds.This is typical for plants of the Boraginaceae family to which belong Forget-me-nots. You can tell the differences between different Forget-me-nots regarding their hairs. This species has short hairs flattened against the flowers stalks and stems, long slighty curved hairs on its leaves, and long hairs with a little hook at the end on the capsules. Difficult to see with the naked eye on such a small plant.

Generally many plants of this little annual grow together in the same spot.

After flowering begins the flower stalks grow longer. Early Forget-me-not produces a lot of flowers during its short life.