A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'O'

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.

'O' - Old Man's Beard, Orchid

In the 16th century herbalist John Gerard gave a plant its name because it "deck(s) and adorn(s) waies and hedges where people trauell".

Traveller's Joy

This rambling woody climber can live for 60 years and reach heights of 50 feet, covering large trees, extensive stretches of hedgerow and even smothering small timber trees.

It's sometimes called wild clematis or virgin's bower due to its interlaced white stems. The flowers are greenish-white or creamy white.

But its fruits - white and feathery - are what gives it the name that I know it by.

Old Man's Beard

Gypsies used to cut lengths of dry stem to smoke - hence it was also given the name gipsy's bacca; in Germany it is Rauchole, bois à fumer in France and smookhout in Holland.

When we walked from Padstow (in Cornwall) on the trail alongside the - 

Camel Estuary

we came across this flower.

"Purple Orchid" ?  - May 2011

Note my question mark as it might even be a Southern marsh orchid or not an orchid at all.

Although the early purple orchid is fragrant enough to begin with it is said be unpleasantly reminiscent of tomcats as the flowers fade. At the time I must confess that I didn't smell it - and Buster wouldn't wait any longer.

Nor can I vouch for its association with sex. The ancient Greeks used it to predict the sex of their children. In Ireland is was an ingredient in a powerful love potion.

Attributions:

• Traveller's Joy - 15 Aug 2009, ex geograph.org.uk by Jonathan Billinger - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
• Old Man's Beard - 24 December 2007, ex geograph.org.uk by Colin Smith - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic

Beached - Sepia Saturday

I thought I would explore some beaches found in my archives and take you on a tour from the West of Scotland via the Adriatic coast to Egypt and end up in the South West of England, before a friendly warning.

A seaside postcard from Ayr, Scotland

This card was one of several linked to Robbie Burns but apart from the views contains no other information to help you date when it was taken. It looks prewar to me.

I cannot date my second card from Yorkshire either and you need good eyes to see anything on the South Bay beach.

The Spa and South Bay, Scarborough

I can put a rough date on the next shot taken in the 1940s, probably somewhere in Egypt during the war when the Fleet Air Arm crews were on a beach.

Egypt (?) - 1940s

Sorry that there have been no bathing belles to admire so far; we get a bit closer on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro.

Beach on the isthmus to the island of Sveti Stefan - c1986

Coming back to Cornwall all I have to show are empty beaches.

Camel Estuary, Padstow - May 2011

At least you can see some footprints - I wonder where Man Friday went?

Crantock Beach, Cornwall

That sea is waiting for the surfers to appear.

Meanwhile this little girl is counting her collection.

Hope she hasn't lost count

I wonder if "she sells seashells on the seashore?"

Finally here's that friendly warning that all can see.

I just wish I could remember where this was taken, I must ask my wife to jog my memory - on second thoughts, I had better not.

For more sand and sea take a trip or donkey ride to Alan's place.