.....wild flowers abound!

Walking round the reserve, I set myself a task. I would find a small area and see how many different wild flowers I could find. I chose a small, grassy clearing between gorse bushes and looked around. The beautiful orchids on our reserve are now over, or nearly so, but there is still an abundance of lovely flowers everywhere. Not counting the obvious ones such as bramble, dandelion and white clover, I found and photographed eleven other species in about five minutes. Once back at home I had to get out my flower books to name some of them - no easy talk when one flower was about 3mm across!


Clockwise from top left: smooth hawksbeard, wild thyme, a bee on common restharrow, fairy flax


Clockwise from top left: tormentil, common centaury, perforate St.John's-wort, rosebay willowherb


Clockwise from top left: eyebright, self-heal, common bird's-foot trefoil


So - a successful task and I learned a lot as well!