Wild Angelica

The large umbels of Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) show off in this poplar plantation near a small stream. In a good year this majestic plant can grow easily two metrres high. Here the soil is wet enough and this spring there was a lot of rain, so everything goes well for Wild Angelica.

Look at details of this plant, it is worthwhile.





Every umbel has two dozens of little umbels on stalks that grow out of the central axis, and every little umbel in its turn has dozens of creamy flowers on still smaller stalks that grow out of the center of those small umbels. The stamina are much longer as the petals and protrude invitingly towards passing insects. A big Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata) took to it, it does not eat just the stamina but also the rest of the flowers.


Here below some leaf sheaths in spring.





Above right the sheath ends into three leaf stems. The sheat to the left is thick and rounded because it still contains the buds of the new flowering stem that will grow out of it soon. And there is a beautiful pattern of hairs, ridges and coloured nerfs.






At the end of summer leaves are often a bit worn down. The weather, insects and diseases did some damage. Leaves are pinnate and have fine dents.

Visible parts of the plant die in winter, but brown round stalks stay around intil spring. Not much is left from the umbels, but some seeds still adhere to them.

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!

Common Twayblade

Somewhere in a deciduous wood, wet and very green after lots of rain, some plants with each a pair of nearly white leaves grow. Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) is already at the end of its flowering season, and the plants take back the chlorophyl from the leaves to the roots to keep it in stock for next year.

In spring new leaves appear.

Two leaves not yet unfurled emerge.

A floral stark comes out, buds begin to open and you can see the first flowers. They are green with a long lower lip. Yes, Common Twayblade is an orchid.

Under the perianth with its forked lip the beginning of a fruit can be seen.

Here a cluster of Twayblades in full bloom. The species is widely found in the region. It grows often in large amounts in woods and brushes. If it grows in dryer and more exposed spots, as in an open space in a wood or a at the edge of it, they are mostly les numerous.

Amethyst Broomrape

The same meadow in full bloom, the background of the picture of the post below. Between yellow Horseshoe Vetch flower a new Broomrape has emerged besides a new leaf of its host.

Amethyst Broomrape (Orobanche amethystea) parasitises Field Eryngo (Eryngium campestre).

Fairy Flax

In a meadow full of flowers there are very little white flowers amidst the yellow Horseshoe Vetches (Hippocrepis comosa).






Fairy Flax (Linum catharticum) is a real flax with thin stalks ans narrow opposite leaves. It is common in this kind of meadow, especially on limestone soil, and it flowers nearly all summer.





Before flowering the flower stems are turned downwards. They turn upwards again when the flower opens.






You have to kneel down and use a magnifying glass to see its details, but when you do this, you see it is really a beauty.






The fruit is a nearly round capsule that opens into five carpels releasing the seeds. It looks exactly like the fruits of other, larger, Flaxes.