Car

Looking for a vintage car?


Seems you've found it ...

Black Bryony

In the West of Africa and some other tropical regions yams, the roots of some plants of the family of Dioscoreaceae are staple foods. The only member of this family in France, the Black Bryony (Tamus communis) also has a big root but it is not edible at all.


Roadsides and bushes are decorated by garlands of red-orange berries of this vine.

















The grey rag you see in the picture above has been green and glossy, a few months ago.

Common Blue

In a warm autumn this butterfly flies until november. At sunrise thousands of Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus) sit waiting for the first rays of sunlight to come to life after a cold night.


When it is asleep you cannot see where its name comes from: the bright blue of the upper side of the wings.
















Oops! Bad luck! A crab spider!

Spiral Orchid

Most orchids are visible in spring and summer, only the Spiral Orchid (Spiranthes spiralis) is flowering now in poor grasslands with sparse vegetation. A lot of plants have their flowers and leaves arranged in spirals, but in many species it is more difficult to discern this pattern.






















The spiral Orchid is small, about a decimeter, and its flowers are only a few millimeters.

Field Eryngo

Those prickly leaves that scratch your ankles while you are walking through a meadow are Field Eryngo (Eryngium campestre).


It is easy to recognise, the wax coating that protects the leaves against summer heat gives the plant its typical green-bluish hue.

It looks like a thistle, a prickly plant with flowers in heads. But no, it does not belong to the family of Asteraceae like other thistles (and the dandelion and the daisy), but to the Apiaceae. Members of this family have flowers in umbels, as you can see in wild carrots and fennel.


In the Field Eryngo the stalks under each flower have so much shortened you don't see them any more. Bracts form a ring under the flowers.

Horseshoe Vetch

In a dry and sunny spot grows Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa).


Early in the morning, flowers still asleep, crowned with dewdrups ...


















... and later in the day, wide awake.

Meadow Clary

The Meadow Clary (Salvia pratensis) is a sage but not one you would like to use in the kitchen; it has no fragrance. Its flowering season is nearly over now, the last stalks in bloom will soon be mowed and turned into hay together with the grass in the meadows where it grows.

This Killer Bug (Rhinocorus iracundus) lays in wait for its prey, another insect, between the flowers, and then uses its long rostrum to suck out this prey.














It seems to prefer the Meadow Clary. But why? Yes, its brilliant red goes well with the dark blue of the flower, but that's not enough of a reason. And there are not more insects to be found on Meadow Clary then on other flowers. So why?