A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'F'

My theme this year is wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few wild flowers that I know.



I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.

'F' - Foxglove, Feverfew, Fritillary

Many wildflowers have found their way into gardens and my choices for 'F' are no exception.

Foxgloves in our garden

We get groups like this every year; we have never planted any (but have moved a few).

Foxgloves grow in forests, hedgerows and on waste ground throughout Britain.

Foxgloves by the side of a lake

Wild Foxgloves (Sherwood Pines Forest Park, Nottinghamshire)

You should be aware that all parts of the foxglove are poisonous. However the drug digitalis is prepared from the dried leaves and is used in small amounts to treat certain heart ailments.

Local names for the foxglove include goblin's thimble, fairy fingers and elves' gloves.

Not all flowers are as attractive as the foxglove but one with daisy-like flowers is immediately identifiable by its pungent aroma that some say keeps the cats away.

Feverfew shrub herb

Even bees dislike the pungent smell; the leaves contain volatile oils with insecticidal properties. 

An old remedy for migraines, it was also used to soothe insect bites and bruising, The name feverfew is a corruption of fibrifuge - a substance that puts fever to flight. Medieval herbalists first brought the plant to Britain where it may be found at roadsides, on walls and in old churchyards.

The one in the photo has found its way into the garden of the Jolly Tanners pub in Staplefield, West Sussex.

     " And then I came to a field where the springing grass
       Was dulled by the hanging cups of fritillaries,

Snake's head fritillary

      Scarfed in dull purple, like Egyptian girls..."

Its distinctive chequerboard pattern gives it one of its oldest folk names of dicebox. You need to get on your knees and look up its skirt for the best effect. The pendulous flowers are like miniature lanterns.

A beautiful flower maybe, but the fritillary's bulbs are poisonous.

Attributions:

• Foxgloves by the side of a lake - 14 July 2008, ex geograph.org.uk, by Bill Nicholls, CC BY-SA 2.0
• Wild foxgloves, Sherwood Pines Forest Park, Nottinghamshire, 18 June 2006, ex geograph.org.uk, Lynne Kirton - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
• Feverfew shrub herb in garden ot the Jolly Tanners public house, Staplefield, West Sussex - 4 July 2015, by Acabasi - CC BY-SA 4.0
• Extract from poem "Fritillaries" by Victoria Sackville-West (1892-1962)