Plant Watch: Germander Speedwell

 

This is the beautiful little Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys).

Found widely in hedgerows around Ireland, the small blue flowers have a four-lobed corolla (that's the collective term for the petals) and two stamens (the male parts of the flower).

In Germany, the flower is often referred to as "Männertreu" or "men's faithfulness" due to the fact that it wilts very quickly after picking! In English-speaking countries, it was considered a good luck charm for travellers, meant to 'speed' you on your journey.

It generally flowers from April to June, altough I found this specimen flowering at Tragumna, West Cork in late August!

Plant Watch: Portland Spurge

Here's Euphorbia portlandica, Portland Spurge. It's a relatively common, coastal plant found on sand dunes around the country, while being less common on the west coast.

Tending to grow low across a dunes, the red stems are a diagnostic feature.

It's a species in the genus Euphorbia, which contains 1603 species and  belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family. The plants bloom from June to August (this photo was taken in late August at Cullenstown, Co. Wexford).

The flowers are aranged as cymes - a more or less flat-topped flower-cluster. Don't confuse it with sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias) which is taller, with larger, less yellow flowers. The bracts of Portland Spurge (those modified leaves associated with the flower) are "ace of spades" shape with a tiny point at the end.

Plants on the coast

Apologies for the dearth of posts of late. To ease us back into it, here's a few images from a day spent botanising on the coast of West Cork. 

They're two very common plants found right around the coast of Britain and Ireland.

The first is Common Scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis). Found on saltmarshes and cliffs, the white flowers have four petals and the leaves are easily identifiable, being arrow-shaped around the stem. It's a member of the Brassicaceae family.

The plant gets its common  name from the fact that it was often used on ships as a cure for scurvy - caused by a lack of vitamin C.

The second plant is Thrift (Armeria maritima). Flowering now until almost the end of summer in places, the pink flowers are found in round terminal heads on tall stalks extending from a cushion of slender, single-veined leaves.

Found also in saltmarshes and (as here) on clifftops, it's also known as Sea Pink.

Interestingly, Thrift is highly tolerant of copper - able to exclude the metal, retaining it in the roots without transporting it to the rest of the plant. It also excretes the copper through its decaying leaves.

A Puzzling Tree

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana) is a familiar yet exotic sight in many large gardens and parks across Ireland and Britain.

Native to South America,it's the national tree of Chile where it is commonly known as Pehuén.

Despite some commentators despising the things (even going so far as to encourage owners to chop them down!), I quite like them.They've got a bizarre, reptilian quality about them which makes them, at the very least, impossible to mistake for any other species.

It's an evergreen, growing relatively slowly and reaching more than 40 metres in places at maturity. The tree can reach a spectacular age - up to 1,300 years old.

The flowers are dioecious, which means they are either male or female. If you want to produce viable seed to propagate the tree, you'll need two trees - one male and one female. The seeds themselves are pretty large and apparently tasty enough to eat.

The leaves are thick, scale-like and triangular with sharp edges. The leaves are so sharp that there has been calls to remove a number of the trees where they are grown close to schools. Madness of course!

There is some concern for the tree in its native South America where logging, human-set fires and land clearance since Europeans arrived have reduced its range. Its tasty seed and sought after timber means it is at a real risk of being over-collected.

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The tree first reached Britain in 1795, when Archibald Menzies, a botanist and surgeon with the British Navy brought five saplings home. Menzies had been served the seeds as a desert at a dinner party hosted by the governer of Chile. Sir Joseph Banks at Kew planted two of the saplings in his own garden and three at Kew.

The common name of the plant apparently derives from the 1850's when the proud owner of an early British example of the tree was showing off his prized possession when one of them remarked: "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". The name has stuck.

There are plenty of Monkey Puzzle trees dotted around the country. Where's your favourite? Send locations (and pics!) and I'll post the best. You can email [email protected]

This post is part of a series to mark National Tree Week 2012.

Wildflowers in Bloom

Some wonderful flowers in bloom on my way to work this morning:

Musk Mallow (Malva moschata)

Common Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)

Corn flower (Centaurea cyanus)

Christmas Science 14: Misteltoe

In the run up to Christmas, Communicate Science offers you 20 Christmas Science Facts. We'll post one every day until the 25th December.

Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for the hemi-parasitic plant Viscum album (European Mistletoe) and is a familiar sight in homes at this time of year.

The term hemi-parasitic means that the plant is both a parasite (i.e. it obtains nutrients and water from a host plant), but that it also photosynthesises itself, to some degree. It's a sort of a middle ground between being completely parasitic and completely free-living.

Viscum album can parasitise over 200 tree and shrub species and can kill these trees eventually. While the plant is poisonous to humans, an array of animals depend on it for food in the wild.

The plant has featured in folklore since Greek mythology and is today (at least in English-speaking countries) hung in the home during the Christmas season. Two people meeting under the mistletoe are obliged to kiss.

The BBC report that Mistletoe may be under threat in the UK.

Christmas Science 3: Holly

In the run up to Christmas, Communicate Science offers you 20 Christmas Science Facts. We'll post one every day until the 25th December.

Holly
There are about 400 species of Holly (Ilex spp.) around the world, with about 80 of them considered to be threatened in the wild. So called 'English Holly" (Ilex aquifolium) is popular in temperate areas for its attractive red fruits against the dark glossy foliage.

These fruits are also attractive to birds who eat them and deposit seed elsewhere, often under other trees. As 'English Holly' is very shade tolerant, it is becoming invasive in forested areas where it is not native, including old-growth forests in the US.

In Ireland, where I. aquifolium is native, it has a strong association with winter and Christmas. In pre-christian times, Holly was seen as a source of life and growth in winter, when the red fruits and dark-green foliage were at their peak.

Holly berries are somewhat toxic to humans.

Plant Watch: Common Poppy - a cultural icon

The Common Poppy (Papaver rheoas) can now be found throughout the country on land which has been recently disturbed due to cultivation or building.

This relatively abundant agricultural weed forms seed which can live for a long time in the soil, before germinating when soil disturbance leads to them being exposed to the right light and moisture conditions for them to grow.

A classic example of such seed dormancy was demonstrated on the Somme battlefield when wild flowers recolonised the land disturbed by battle during World War 1. Since then, the poppy has become a cultural icon in the UK and was adopted by the British Legion as a symbol commemorating the dead of that war.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, written in 1915, makes prominent use of the poppy.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

John McCrae

P. rhoeas (or Corn Poppy as it is commonly known) is the most important broadleaved weed species infesting winter cereals in the south of Europe. Its highly persistant seed make it difficult to control and it can decrease wheat yields by as much as 32%.

Herbicide resistant populations of corn poppy have now been recorded which will make control even more difficult in these regions.

Plant Watch: Goosegrass - the Velcro plant

Over the summer months, we'll take a look at some of the more interesting plants that can be spotted around Irish towns and countryside. The aim is to make it easy to identify at least some of them and have an understanding of their biology. The best thing you can do is to get out there and have a look yourself. We'll start with an easy one to spot and it's highly abundant - so no excuses for not being able to find it!

Goosegrass (Galium aparine) is found throughout the country in both urban and rural habitats. Dog owners will be all too familiar with the seeds of this plant -often adhering in large numbers to dogs which have managed to roll in a clump of these plants. The time taken to remove the seeds from a dogs coat can be considerable!

The plant itself can be found in many different types of habitats. Look for it on scrub or wasteland in urban and semi-urban locations. It may also be found in ditches in agricultural areas; sometimes encroaching on the planted field itself.

The plant can be recognised by touch as much as anything else given its 'velcro-like' stems. These stems are noticeably 4-angled (almost square in shape) with minute, curved prickles all over which give the distinctive velcro feel.

The leaves are arranged in groups (whorls) of between 6 and 9 narrow, pointed leaves. When they eventually flower they'll produce tiny (c. 2 mm) white flowers with four petals.

The fruits, which become evident in late summer are 2-lobed and densely covered with more of these hooked bristles. In terms of seed dispersal, goosegrass is very sucessful. The seeds will stick to animals, clothing, etc. and can be carried a large distance from the parent plant.

Goosegrass is edible*. The fruits can be roasted to make a coffee-like drink and the plant can be made into a tea which has been used by herbalists to treat blood pressure and high temperatures. The plant can be boiled and used as a leaf vegetable before the seeds appear and it makes for "tolerable eating". The tea can also be used to wash your hair and treat dandruff.

The plant can be very troublesome for farmers, reducing yield in winter wheat by 12-57% in a UK study. Because of its straggling, binding nature it can seriously interfere with the process do harvesting.

* Please note, there are inherent dangers in eating wild plants which you may not have identified correctly. If in any doubt, don't eat it and consult an expert. The medicinal claims mentioned are often just that - claims. Don't consider this article a substitute for qualified medical advice.