Rosebay Willowherb

 You must have seen Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium) wherever you walk as it is both striking and common, forming extensive stands wherever it grows. It is also very tall and with its bright purple-pink flowers can be seen from a distance.

The flowers are attractive close up and if it wasn't so common and invasive, it would be sold as a garden flower. (In fact, the white flowered version is sold as a garden flower.)

Rosebay Willowherb flowers

It forms a spike  with new buds forming at the top, open flowers below and then the seed pods lower down.

Rosebay Willowherb buds, flowers and seed pods

Every flower forms a seed pod and each seed pod splits to release lots of seeds with a fluffy parachute attached.

Seed pod splitting

Each bit of fluff is carrying a seed:

Rosebay Willowherb seeds

When you consider how many seeds must be produced by just one flowering spike, it is no wonder that  it manages to spread itself far and wide (Someone, not me, has suggested 80,000 seeds per flowerhead). It is quick to colonise bare and waste ground such as bonfire sites and bombsites.  The seeds are carried along railways by the air currents of passing trains. Once it has taken root, it will persist for years as it is a perennial.

Sow-thistles

  At this time of year, there are quite a few yellow dandelion-like flowers along the road verges and in the grass.  They are not always easy to identify.  One easy one that you can spot from the car is Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis).  It is tall - up to 5 feet - and can be seen growing alongside the A9 near the kerbs.

Perennial Sow-thistles growing in a road verge

It has hairs sticking out from the stalk and under the flowers:

The hairs are a bit sticky as each one has a drop of liquid at the end. They are known as glandular hairs.

Glandular hairs on Perennial Sow-thistle

A few years ago I had only seen these plants by the Highland Wildlife Park and near Laggan.  With the building of the new A9 near the Park, the plants have now spread along the A9 and can also be seen in the verge by Pitmain Farm outside Kingussie.

Seed head

Their spread will have been though the fluffy wind blown seeds being carried along by the air disturbance from cars passing and seem to then grow quite well in the gravel drains alongside the kerbs.

There are two other Sow-thistles that are very common as they grow at the edges of paths and on waste ground. They both have smaller flowers that are a more lemony shade of yellow rather than the large golden flowers of the Perennial Sow-thistle.

This one is Smooth Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and is growing at the side of the path that goes from Newtonmore Main Street to Church Terrace.

Smooth Sow-thistle

Pointed leaf end of Smooth Sow-thistle

The leaves are quite thin and soft and not too prickly.

Note the pointed ends of the leaves as that helps distinguish it from Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper).  

 Prickly Sow-thistle is more common - lots of it grows alongside Newtonmore Primary School wall.

Prickly Sow-thistle

Prickly Sow-thistle has shinier, glossy and very prickly leaves. Also, the ends of the leaves near the stem are rounded.

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

Rounded ends to leaves of Prickly Sow-thistle

When I lived in New Zealand, Smooth Sow-thistle was known as puha and was eaten. Apparently Captain Cook used this vegetable, boiled up to cure scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) affecting his crew.You can read more about it  here. I haven't tried it myself, but it can be cooked like spinach.

Links

The Herb Federation of New Zealand: puha

Around Dalwhinnie

 During the last sunny spell of weather, I went walking on the tracks near Dalwhinnie. Some of the tracks were put in for access for the new pylons and are not particularly walker friendly as they have locked gates.  Probably because there are still a lot of abandoned concrete structures - which now have tree saplings growing through them. I was surprised to find Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea) on a track edge.

Common Centaury

  I have never found this in Badenoch before.  It is not common up here, in spite of its name. There is some growing at Ardesier in the old fabrication yard, and it is likely that the seeds were brought to the Dalwhinnie track in tyres or imported fill.  It will be interesting to see how long it persists.

Another uncommon find was on the Allt an t-Sluic  track just North of Dalwhinnie. Just one flower. Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris).

Grass-of-Parnassus

It is growing through a small Scots Pine seedling and was near a man-made lochan.  If you see palustris or palustre in a plant name, it indicates that it grows in damp areas as palustris is the Latin for marsh. The rest of the name is from Mount Parnassus in Greece. It was recorded as growing on a mountain in ancient Greece, but isn't a grass.  The last time it was recorded locally was 1981 in Coire Chais in the Drumochter Hills.  If you spot any on your hill walks, I would love to see a photo and a grid reference (6 figures if possible).

Late Summer Blues

Some flowers are happy to bloom all season, but many have their own particular time.  Just now, the orchids are finished and Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) is making a sea of blue amongst the grasses.

Devil's-bit Scabious

I looked up how it got its name, and according to Wikipedia,  scabious plants were used to treat scabies and other itchy complaints, and the devil bit off the roots in anger.

Two other blue flowers are out at the moment.  they are not as numerous but make up for this with their delicate beauty.  The Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) is a bell-shaped nodding flower which grows in many places locally.

Harebell

Harebell

The other beauty is Field Gentian (Gentianella campestris) which is much fussier.  There are lots of them this year, near the Spey.  They are scarce further South, in England.

Field Gentian amongst Eyebright

Field Gentian showing sepals

To check that it is Field Gentian, you look at the sepals (the green "leaves" at the base of and surrounding the flower.It has two big overlapping sepals on the outside and two smaller ones inside them. You can see the arrangement on the topmost flower in the photo.