Sheepbit

The picture here below dates from two weeks ago. Hot wetter last week brought flowering season for Sheepbit (Jasione montana) to an end, the little blue balls have faded away and now the plant is difficult to find. Especially when it hides in high grass and brambles.









The little round flowerheads are composed of several dozen very little bell-shaped flowers. Yes, Sheepbit is a member of the Campanulaceae family, it has also the typical blue colour of this family.

It grows in neglected grasslands and field and wood edges on sandy neutral or acidic soil, often in light shadow, and it is not that common in Perigord.

To carry so many flowers you need a lot of stalks, apparently.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower

A big, rather untidy plant grows in the brambles and bushes on the side of a path. It has a lot of blue flowers.

Nettle-leaved bellflower (Campanula trachelium) produces all summer, and even after it, blue or lilac bell-shaped flowers on long sturdy stalks. It does not like full sunshine so you will find it mostly in the shadow of trees, sometimes together with the Clustered bellflower that now already has stopped flowering.

The flowers are hairy, even inside!

The triangular leaves (yes, like nettle leaves) are also hairy. Here those of a small plant just before it started flowering.

Clustered Bellflower

Clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata) is a species of woodland edges and roadsides. Here, it is hidden in the vegetation along a walking path; Oregano with its pink flowerheads is more striking.

The dark blue little bells grow in clusters along and at the end of the stems. Clustered bellflower begins to flower in June, and in August, it is over; it really is a summer flower.

Sometimes a flowerhead has only a few flowers, on big plants they are larger and fuller.

The leaves are rather long and heart-shaped at their base.

Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort

Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum) is prolific this summer, it has lots of flowers. It can grow nearly a meter high and it grows in marshy or swampy, or at least wettish, areas.

It has quadrangular stalks with distinct ridges. The leaves grow in opposite pairs and they are sessile. From most pairs of leaves emerge flowers.

In the leaves you can see tiny transparant points and sometimes also some small black points. They are just visible to the naked eye, a magnifying glass can be of help. The little black points are glands, and they are typical for hypericums. Square-stalked Saint-John's-wort does not have many of them compared to other species of this family.

The flowers are somewhat untidy little stars, five yellow petals and a bunch of stamens that go in all directions.

Lesser Scullcap

Not far from a the road that runs along a wet and slightly peaty area grows Lesser Scullcap (Scutellaria minor). It needs water and acidic soil to flourish and here, it finds both. In Perigord this kind of habitat is not very common, but in the open spaces of the Bessède forest you can find it. Flora here is very rich, and different from the plants you can find on dry Jurassic or Maestrichtian limestone soils that are more common in Perigord.

On the calyxes of the flowers of Lesser Scullcap grows, strangely enough, a kind of bump, whence its name. The little pink flowers are spotted with purple honey guides.

Perennial Pea

In the early morning there are still some dewdrops on the pink flowers of Perennial Pea (Lathyrus latifolius). They will disappear quickly when it gets hot.

It goes on and on flowering, even in the hot summer weather. Perennial Pea is the largest wild Pea you can find here. It can grow two meters long and, yes, it is a perennial plant. It does not look that big: It could use its tendrils to climb surrounding plants but often it stays near ground level.

Normally with Peas each leaf consists of a pair of folioles with a tendril in between (but of course there are exceptions). Often the stems are winged, this means they have two flattened strips on each side.

Perennial Pea likes borders, of fielsd, roads and woods. Here below it grows between the ferns at the edge of a chestnut wood. You can see the long pods already developing.

Perennial Pea is a near relative of the cultivated Sweet Pea, but in cotrast to this one, the wild plant does not have a particular smell.

Common Chicory

The Big Prize for the bluest flower will probably be given to Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Below, this colour contrasts beautifully against the cereals ready for harvest that surround it. It can be found in cultivated fields, but also in gardens, on roadsides, or in wastelands.

The stalks zigzag everywhere. No leaves are visible any more, they have fallen off when flowering started.

Common Chicory is a sister of garden chicories and endives and, in fact, its leaves are edible, but very bitter, so you are not tempted to add them to a salad.


To see the flowers you should not wait until the end of the day.

You will not see anything but green stalks, the flowers open only in the morning and early afternoon.