Dog Rose by Anna Allum
Wonderful wildlflowers
Summer is the best time to go for a walk and browse nature’s sweet shop – a wildflower meadow. As well as seeing and smelling some beautiful flowers, you’ll be able to see some of the incredible insects who visit them to feast on their tasty nectar.
But as well as being an important source of food for our bees, beetles, butterflies, bugs, hoverflies and moths, many of these plants have had their part to play in our history, health and folklore too. Let me take you on a walk around our nature trail and introduce you to a few of my favourites...
Highlighting the swaying seed heads of Yorkshire fog and meadow grasses are Ox eye daisies. These are the largest of our native daisy species and they are enjoyed by various pollinating insects, including butterflies, bees and hoverflies. The yellow button-like centre of the daisy is made up of many small flowers which hold plenty of nectar. In Germany the flowers were known as ‘storm flowers’ and were hung around doors to ward off lightning. Here, they are also known by the name of ‘moon daisy’ or ‘moonpenny’ - the oxeye daisy was dedicated by the Greeks to Artemis, goddess of the moon.
I’ll also introduce you to flowers named after cats and mice….
Mouse ear is topped with tiny white star-shaped flowers and it is the soft downy hairs on the paired leaves that give this plant its name. The horn-like seed capsules only release their seed when the air is dry, ensuring that they will be carried on the wind rather than washed away by the rain. By contrast, cat’s ear has bold bright yellow dandelion-like flowers that rise from a rosette of wavy-edged leaves. Cat’s ear is an excellent source of nectar with a long flowering season and is a good seed source for birds. So where do cats come into it? It is named for the small scales on the stem that are thought to resemble cat’s ears!
In our meadow near Winpenny Hide you should find dense clumps of Bird’s Foot Trefoil. ‘Trefoil’ indicates that it has 3 parts to the leaf which is said to resemble a bird’s foot. It is also called ‘eggs and bacon’ because of its yellow and red flowers, or ‘Granny’s toenails’. This is one of the chief foodplants of the common blue butterfly so look for these stunning bright blue butterflies as you explore. Schoolchildren once used to carry some of this plant with them, believing it would stop them being given punishments!
Whilst it might be quieter for birds on the brooks during the summer there is always something to see and admire. We’ve set up our ‘Wonderful Wildflowers trail’ around the paths to introduce you to some of the fascinating flowers you can see at Pulborough Brooks. The trail will be running throughout the summer around our wetland nature trail – there’s no additional charge & no need to book a visit.
Find out more here:
https://events.rspb.org.uk/events/47306