All Shapes and Sizes

Saturday, August 2nd 2014

Wild Carrot is a biennial, taking two years from seed to flowering.  Each year we have to look for it as it rarely grows in the same place each year. The composite umbelifer flower can have a tiny red centre.  On the flower walk we found it growing  on the heath.  The main flower at the head of the stem did not have a red centre.

However the flowers lower down the stem, on the same plant, did!

Another amazing plant is the biennial Teasel.  The lower leaves form a cup around the stem.  Water collects here and insects fall into it.  They are then digested and the nutrients absorbed.  Apparently the more insects 'eaten' the greater number of seeds produced.  Butterflies and bees feed from the flower.

Sun and warmth are ideal for the growth of plants. (Recent rainfall will, no doubt help them to grow and more loppering and secaturing will be needed!)  Flowers cover the reserve and their bright colours stand out.  Warm and damp conditions also favour fungi and some of them are now beginning to show their fruiting bodies.  This Chicken in the Wood is growing on an old log and is visbly increasing in size, daily!  

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