A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'J'

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.


'J' - Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon, Jacob's Ladder

I have never seen either or the two flowers I am going to show under 'J'.

Goatsbeard

The dandelion-like flowers of the goatsbeard may be found on grasslands and by the roadside. The flowers only open in the morning and close up around midday - and that's why it's also called Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon.

The long silky parachute-like hairs that appears when the flowers reopen help distribute the seed in the wind.

Goatsbeard seed clock

In France the 'J' connection is maintained where the plant is called barbe à Jean - St John's beard - and is picked to celebrate St John's Eve.

The tap root can be cooked and eaten with butter like parsnips. The spindly leaves are also edible and may be used in salads.

Although it is a plant seen in gardens my second flower is one of Britain's rarest wild flowers. Its leaves have up to 25 narrow leaflets arranged in pairs, supposedly looking like the rungs of a ladder. (Unfortunately I cannot show you a photo of these - check the Mongolian stamp at the end.)

Jacob's ladder

According to the Old Testament. Jacob dreamed the angels used the rungs for climbing up to heaven.

Jacob's ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) or Greek Valerian has lavender-coloured or white cup-shaped flowers. Apparently cats are attracted to the scent of the plant.

The ancient Greeks used it as a medicinal herb to treat dysentery, toothache and animal bites, Although it is not used medicinally, it was used in the 19th century as a syphilitic agent and to treat rabies.

Attributions:

• Goatsbeard (beside the M!! Junction 11 roundabout) - 6 June 2008, ex geograph.org,uk, by Keith Edkins - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
• Goatsbeard, the clock seedhead (by the A396 in the Exe valley) - 28 June 2006, ex geograph,org,uk, by Penny Mayes - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
• Jacob's ;adder - 12 June 2012, by Colin Grice - CC BY-SA 3.0.