Confounded Composites

Dandelion ... or Sowthistle?

Dandelions ... or Hawkweed?

Q.When doesn't a dandelion-like  flowerhead belong to a dandelion?

A.When it belongs to a

• Cat's Ear
• Sowthistle
• Hawkweed
• Hawk's Beard
• Hawkbit 
• Lettuce
• Nipplewort
• Goat's Beard
• Oxtongue
• Viper's Grass
• Colt's Foot

with multiple variations possible amongst these categories.  

I came across a yellow dandelion-like flower growing in my back garden several weeks ago and have been trying to narrow down which one it is ever since.  It has been driving me mad. 

Here are some of the features I have learnt are relevant to correct identification:

Time of flowering
Location
Habitat
Height
Stem - Hollow or not,secreting lactose or not,branched or unbranched,leafy or bare, green or purple, ribbed or not, prickly/hairy/bracted
Leaves - Shape/how attached
Rosette - The shape of the overwintering leaves at ground level
Flower - size, depth of colour, construction, 
Flowerheads - bunched or single/bracted or not/bract patterns
Fruiting head and Pappus (dandelion clock)

I tried to reduce these key features but it turns out that there is always another species whose tell tale characteristic is something you hadn't thought of. Here is my seemingly innocent candidate. It cropped up in the lawn and also in the wildflower bed.  Multiply branched at ground level and up the stems I would describe it as wirey stemmed (not round or hollow). 

The profile view is more telling because it reveals there are two sets of bracts one long and the other short (sepal like). 

 That makes it a Hawk's-beard. The Crepis family comprises some 200 siblings worldwide. 17 are said to be  native to the UK,  The most frequently found here are:

Crepis capillaris    Smooth Hawksbeard
Crepis vesicaria    Beaked Hawksbeard
Crepis biennis        Rough Hawksbeard

.

But searching for a basal rosette I am thwarted as there is only the remnants if there was one at all. 

The stem leaves are however making the case for Crepis capillaris  Smooth Hawk's-beard.

Here is the full SP on Crepis capillaris:

Introduced, warm season, annual or short-lived perennial herb to 75 cm tall. Stems are branched, with sparse, crinkly hairs. Basal leaves form a rosette, and are oblanceolate to lanceolate in outline, 10–25 cm long, 1–5 cm wide, margins toothed to runcinate-pinnatifid, glabrous or ± hairy. Cauline leaves are smaller, mostly narrow-lanceolate, stem-clasping, with acuminate auricles. Heads are 5–6 mm diam., and numerous, on slender peduncles, in loose corymbose panicles; involucral bracts are lanceolate, with sparse to dense white non-glandular and dark glandular hairs. Florets are all ligulate, the corolla yellow, often with pink or red stipe on outer face of ligule. Achenes are 2 mm long, lack a beak and have a pappus of simple white hairs. Flowering is in summer. A native of Europe, it is a weed of roadsides and disturbed areas.

So that's pretty clear?

This description along with the photo below have convinced me,

Source :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/macleaygrassman/15900577274/in/photostream/

At least I can say with confidence that this is a dandelion...

....cant I?

Red Orach - Weed or Veg

 

Here's another 'wild' plant I have a soft spot for when it turns up in my vegetable patch.  It is just so striking and distinctive and edible.

It's Latin name gives away that it was a mainstay of the vegetable garden in the past: Atriplex hortensis.  The story is that green and red orach used to be common until the upstart spinach arrived and displaced it from the plate and garden.  One or two pop up each year and are not weeded out, but I must admit that their appeal is aesthetic and I have not to date eaten the leaf.

Teasing Teasel

Here's a spectacular wild flower that is at it's best around now: Teasel

Later in the year the dried flower head is still impressive and the seeds are much appreciated by goldfinches in particular.

It is another tall plant

One interesting feature is the way the leaves merge to form a water retaining cup around the stem as in the next two photos.

The water is said to have rejuvenating qualities when applied to skin. It has been called "The Bath of Venus".  There is also the suggestion that it is a trap for insects - which implies this is a partially carnivorous plant. Certainly it fairs well in drought conditions.

It is very architectural

The flower head,  the leaves and the stems are all demand respect as they are very prickly.

A poultice of the root is claimed to relieve muscle pain, but the notable part of this plant is the dry head which was used on an industrial scale for carding.  That is the process of 'teasing' rough wool into long strands suitable for spinning into yarn and gives the plant its name. 

The height of the plant and the strength of the stem mean that it is very good at self seeding.  I have been amazed to see how resilient it is standing solitary in gale force winds. This serves to dislodge and carry away any remaining seeds which germinate in the soil downwind.  A pleasing and functional design. Even in the vegetable patch we always tolerate a few,  where they are least obstructive.

Mulling on Mullein

Great Mullein - Verbascum thapsus

Here's a wild flower that is worth accepting when it turns up in your vegetable plot.  Statuesque and brightly coloured this plant is widely distributed around the world and has many uses and superstitions attached to it.  The flower is surely enough to bring joy to anyone coming across it.  I seem to recall it being all the fashion at Chelsea a few years ago.

Leaves

The leaves, especially the young ones,  are  soft like lambs ears and recognised as an excellent liner for shoes.  They are also dried and, in the past, smoked as a remedy for asthma bronchitis and catarrh

Head and shoulders above other weeds.

There is a structural similarity to foxglove, the first year's growth producing a rosette from which, in the second year the spire emerges rocketlike.

Rosette - First year's growth

The flowers are a rich source of nectar, attracting bees and many other pollinating insects.

This is a powerful plant not recommended for human consumption.  The seeds are narcotic and have been used to stupefy fish. Reputedly a remedy for lice it is also used as an ingredient in shampoo, particularly for fair hair.

Another traditional use of Great Mullein (also known as Hedge Taper) is as a flaming torch.  The dried stems are dipped in tallow or suet to provide a reliable long lasting bright light.  The French Fete de Brandons on the first Sunday in Lent relies on this tradition to locate corncockles in the fields and remove them from the harvest crop (as they spoil the crop).  This use always conjures up an image in my mind of a mob of country yokels advancing with pitchforks.  Here's a suitable candidate for this purpose:

As you can see they grow up to 10ft  and if damaged produce multiple heads.  There is an associated superstition connected with this plant.  The gist is that you name your true love's name as you twist off the head of the plant. If it recovers they return your affections - and the number of new flower heads that subsequently develop indicates the number of offspring resulting from your union.

Other ailments Mullein has been said to cure include warts, earache, bed wetting, boils, rheumatism, gout  and last but not least parrot bites!  Amongst these there may be some tall stories for this tall plant.

Mugging Up On Mugwort

I sometimes tell myself only to pull out weeds when I can identify them first.  This is a bit extreme but sensible enough when you are dealing with flower beds into which you have sown seeds or planted out seedlings.  The picture above vouches for my adherence to this rule. Those stems are now over 6ft high.  But now I have finally identified the mystery weed as (drumroll)... Mugwort - Artemesia vulgaris.

When it first appeared the leaves were like this (above) and I thought the delphiniums from last year might have self seeded. But later leaves look more like this:

The reverse of the upper leaves have a silver down:

The mature stems are purple and ribbed.

 Often identification has to wait until the flowers appear.  After a long wait this appears to be the "flower".  Interestingly the reputed scent of honey is from the flower only. When I rolled a flowerhead between my palms there was a fleeting but unmistakable aroma.

This is a new weed on me so I have had to mug up on it (sic). It turns out to be  a cure all with a long history. 

Pliny (according to Gerard) said that travellers feel no tiredness and "he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poysonesome medicines, nor by any wilde beast, neither yet by the Sun itselfe"
It is also reputedly good for eyesight, childbirth, warding off evil spirits and curses as well as flies, intestinal worms and snakes. 

Girdles, singlets, chaplets, hats have been fashioned from branches of mugwort.  For some reason casting them into the fire seems to be requirement, preferably on midsummers day which is often associated with this plant.

A symbol of happiness and tranquility it also has a reputation as a rampant weed, so now that I can name it I will be digging it up.  While doing so I will also watch out for the coal under its roots which is said to protect against "plague, carbuncle,lightning, the quartan-ague, and from burning" just by having it about your person!

Looking online there appears to no shortage of suppliers of dried mugwort leaf, probably nowadays  to be consumed as a tea for rheumatism. I might just save a few leaves dry and test their reputation for being good for your feet.  In Somerset there is a saying: Put mugwort in your shoes and you can run all day. Another theory is that the Romans grew it along roadsides to provide podiatric support for their legions on the march. 

There's an awful lot of associations with Mugwort - enough for a museum:

A Paradox of a Weed

Our local wood has drifts of these at this time of year.  They have a faint smell of garlic, but what are they? 

Well they are not 

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), which has broader leaves round stems and starlike clusters of flowers

Spring or Summer Snowflake (Leucojum), which have quite showy flowers and haven't made it north of the border, yet.

 Wild Onion/Three Cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum).  Their flowers hang in clusters and petals have a green stripe

They turn out to be Few-Flowered Garlic (Allium paradoxum),The long narrow leaves are small in number and each has a ridge on one side and a groove down the other.  Flowers are, as the name suggests, few in number and sit atop a triangular stem. Another characteristic I will be looking out for is the development of bulbils after flowering.  Yes I think I have nailed it (at last)!

They are an introduced species from Turkey/Iran district dating back to 1823.  The first record of them appearing in the wild  in the UK is 1863 "near Edinburgh".  I rest my case.

Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh hate them  See https://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/28757  for their suggestions as to how to deal with it.

Worms and Weed Suppressant Fabric

Today I conducted a worm survey on my allotment.  I chose three locations. Firstly on ground which had been covered with weed suppressant fabric and was not used to grow a  crop in the last growing season.

Second was an uncovered patch that had gone a bit wild after the legumes and squashes had been harvested

The third sampling site was patch where onions and beetroot had been grown and was not heavy with weeds.

At each location I dugout a cube ( spade's width and depth) of soil onto a white plastic sheet.  Then I sifted through by hand using a spatula (a toy sandpit spade actually) and counted the worms that were big enough to be visible.  The first observation as that there were precious few earthworms at any of the three sites.  Sources talk about 5 to 25 worms per square foot, but I only counted a total of 8 (not counting a centipede, millepede, wireworm and a snail.

The fabric covered area was the worst, yielding just one very pink knotted worm (see top photo). The other two sites were close although the less weedy site just edged it at 4 genuine earthworm.

Overall I am worried at how few worms I turned up.  The original aim of this survey was to attempt to assess the effect of weed suppressant fabric on soil health, as indicated by the number of earthworms.  Just one worm is a fairly clear result.  This is not a result I welcome as I have found the fabric to be a boon, saving me lots of hours of weeding while producing good yields (of sweetcorn strawberries and brassicas for instance).   I may repeat my survey in wetter weather.  (The normal Edinburgh torrent has abated for the last week.) But it looks to me that I should stop using the fabric, except in desperation.

Focus on Fumitory

Here's a plant I just can't get in focus.  The macro setting on my camera just hates the arrangement of the flower petals (which refuse to conform to the botanical ideal of a flower) and instead latches on to the leaves. The flowers are cylindrical, vary in colour from one end to the other and are reputed to be pollinated solely by the increasingly rare turtle dove (although they are also self fertilising as a backstop). It is a member of the poppy family Papaveraceae.

They caught my eye on my wanderings, and I adopted my usual practice of snapping them on camera for an identity parade back in the comfort of my own home.  Only every shot was out of focus.  I was fuming!

So why is this called fumitory (Latin: smoke, earth)?

Here are some of the common explantions:

1. As Pliny famously noted: if you rubbed it on your eyes it had a similar effect to being engulfed in smoke.
2. As you approach it has the ephemeral appearance of a puff of smoke.
3. The leaves are wispy like smoke.
4. If you ease the root out of the ground a smell of smoke is released.
5. It reproduces through the interaction of smoke and earth, not by seed. (Really?)
6. (Tied in with 5)  This plant is held to be one of the first to appear after the ground has been scorched by fire.

Answer: You decide, but I don't think 5 is on.

There is a yellow version too grown in gardens as yellow corydalis.  I happened across some at Inveresk Lodge Garden just the other day.

After my recent experience with its wild sibling this was as near as I dared get to the flower.

A Bit of a Runner - Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot flowers on the canal bank

 The verge beside the canal towpath is ideally suited to Coltsfoot.  It emerges en mass at this time of year with its dandelion like flowers which open and close with the light.

The flowering shoots appear first:

Coltsfoot - Tussilago farfara L

Followed by the waxy, vaguely maple leaf shaped, leaves as seen in the centre of the following picture:

These persist when the flower stalks waste away.  Reproduction is both by wind dispersal of seed and vegetatively through rhizomes that reach a metre down into the soil.  There are between 1500 and 3,500 seeds per plant. With these characteristics you will not be surprised that it is a very persistent visitor - once it has a hoofhold.  Like rosebaywillowherb it will travel the full length of the canal (or motorway).

What's it good for:  It has a reputation as a medicinal herb, especially recommended as a cough remedy. Mineral content is very high in sodium, magnesium and calcium.

As Rare as Hensbits

Hensbit - Lamium amplexicaul

After my recent post on Purple Dead nettles and Ground Ivy I set myself the task of finding the elusive Hensbit.  Yes, it is rare for a weed to be elusive, especially one of those "easily confused" weeds, but Hensbit has proved just that.  It occurred to me that maybe it flowers at a different time of year, but even so the leaf formation (wrapped around the stem) is the key distinguishing feature and that should be visible before flowering.  I was also armed with the information that Hensbit is most commonly found on tilled soil  - and our allotment site has 26 mostly tilled plots. So off I set with camera in hand.

First discovery: There are  two similar deadnettles. Aside from the Red there is the "cut leaved" which at first sight looks like Hensbit. But it can't be Hensbit because the leaves are heartshaped and stalked (petiolate). This has been considered as a subspecies of the Red as you can tell from the Latin name: Laminium hybridum, but the two plants differ in several ways aside from the purple leaf coloration.

Green serrated leaf margins, slender stalks It's Serrated Leaf Deadnettle.

Purple leaved "Red" Deadnettle

So it turned out that on my plot there were two similar but distinct deadnettles but no Hensbit.  I extended my search to the other 25 plots, and just when I was about to admit defeat I found this:

Leaves grouped in stalkless whorls around the stem  at well spaced intervals!

Top view of Hensbit

and here is alongside a neighbouring Red Deadnettle

It is only on one plot out of 26 (and the other two plants are spread from one end of the site to the other).  I call that rare!


3/4/19   post script. 
It now seems that there are three deadnettles on our allotment site,  or four if you include hensbit as a deadnettle .  The Northen Deadnettle (Lamium confertum) shares many features with Cut Leaf Deadnettle  (Lamium hybridum).  See Northern Deadnettle ID for a full specification.  This seems to be a perfect match for some of the deadnettles that are clearly not Red Deadnettle.

https://www.ukwildflowers.com/Web_pages/lamium_confertum_northern_dead_nettle.htm