Wednesday 14 July 2021

Purple, White and Yellow - Names...

am here referring to the last two posts in this blog. I'm afraid my readers will have to do a bit of up/down scrolling to see the pictures and compare them to my list of names. Sorry! I am now going to attempt to name the wild flowers that I have recently photographed, all flowering within a half-mile of our home on the Isle of Skye. 

I am aware that for the precise identification of a wild flower, a serious botanist will need to see the whole plant, but I am not going to try to provide botanical names for my flowers. When it comes to common names, many wild flowers (if not all of them) have multiple different names... so I am going to offer the names I know these flowers by.

I welcome comments and corrections - I am not at all certain that my names are entirely accurate - and what is number 22...???  Over to you...

1.Tufted vetch

2. Buttercup

3. Speedwell

4. Tormentil

5. Hawkbit

6. Some variety of plantain

7. Ragged Robin

8. Northern marsh orchid

9. Foxglove

10. Ox-eye daisy

11. Common spotted orchid

12. Purple saxifrage

13. Heath bedstraw

14. Some variety of bee orchid

15. Spear thistle

16. Cow parsley

17 White and purple marsh thistles

18. Birdsfoot trefoil

19. Red clover

20. Ling heather

21. Some other kind of plantain

22. No idea…!

23. Common hogweed

24. Stinging nettle

25. White clover

26. Bull thistle

27. Goosegrass (and a prize for the teeniest flower...)

28. Yellow vetch

29. Ragwort

30. Yarrow

31. Meadowsweet

32. Red campion


Thursday 8 July 2021

Purple, White and Yellow - Some More...

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't started this... Having photographed some 26 different flowering wild plants while out very locally with Cupar-the-Collie the other day, I now can't stop looking for more... and, yes, there are quite a few I missed. So here's a further small selection, and I know there are still at least a couple that I am yet to photograph, plus others currently in bud which will flower soon...

I am trying to name them all, and will post my list of those I am certain of, and those I am guessing at, in a few days time.

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Monday 5 July 2021

Purple, White And Yellow

Every spring and summer on Skye, we are enchanted by the flourishing outburst of wild flowers that wave and blossom on every inch of roadside and moor. The plants squash together in a chaotic muddle, and thrust their flowers towards the sky to attract the pollinating insects that ensure more similar plants the following year. The sheer variety of shape and size of plant and flower is bewildering, but in colour, they all tend towards purple, white or yellow. I challenge anyone to name them all.... 

(Photos all taken today within half a mile of the Barn).

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