A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'Q'

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.

'Q' - Queen Anne's Lace, Quercus Robur

I predicted quite correctly when I wrote about cow parsley under 'C' that I would regret not saving it for 'Q' under its other name.

Queen Anne's Lace

I always thought that I could rely on the flowers from a tree whose Latin name is 'quercus robur'  before it dawned on me that I had no idea what they looked like.

Quercus robur is the tree that has the status of a national emblem - the English oak. I also learned that it is also called the common or pedunculate or French oak despite it receiving the 'title' of Royal Oak for harbouring Charles II when he was escaping Cromwell's Roundheads during the Civil War.

Hopefully by the time this post is published I shall have obtained a photo of the quercus robur that I pass every day and the flowers (or catkins) that it carries.

Oak leaves and flowers (male catkins) in Osgodby Coppice

I understand that the female catkins are smaller, but it's these that produce the 'nuts' that squirrels love.

Acorns

Acorns are also known as mast, from the Scandinavian word 'mat' meaning food. Acorn is derived from Scandinavian too, 'ek korn' meaning oak corn seed. They were once served extensively as winter fodder to pigs that were allowed to roam the woods in places like the New Forest.

For years I believed that the tree grew apples like this.

Oak apple

But this is not an apple at all but rather oak apple gall a swelling caused by larvae of the gall wasp burrowing into the leaf buds as they form.

There are more species of oak trees' The Holm oak is an evergreen and is one I have still to see.

Holm oak catkins 

Some oaks have male and female catkins, others one or the other.

I have still to find out which have which.

Attributions:

• Oak leaves & flowers, Osgodby Coppice - 18 April 2007, ex geograph.org,uk, by Kate Jewell - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
• Holm oak catkins - 2 june 2006, ex geograph.org.uk, by Penny Mayes CC BY-SA 2.0 generic

A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wild Flowers 'C'

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.

'C' - Cowslips, Cow Parsley, Cranesbill

Yesterday I included buttercups under letter 'B' and mentioned the Irish tradition of rubbing them on cows' udders.

That's an oblique link to these flowers.

Cowslips

The cowslip's name is a polite form of cowslop or cowpat, the animal's droppings in scattered clumps on pastureland. Once an established flower on grassland it has become more rare as meadows have been ploughed up.

Those in my photo were seen last year on a grassy bank in North Yorkshire.

Roadside verges often contain other 'cow' related flowers.

Buttercups and cow parsley

Cow parsley

I may regret including this under 'C' as it is also known as Queen Anne's Lace.

It was common practice when I was young to make peashooters of its thick stems. I was never clever enough to use them to make whistles.

Unfortunately it may be mistaken for similar looking, but poisonous, relatives such as hemlock and fool's parsley and has as a consequence sometimes been called Devil's meat.

Now you might wonder what my next shot has to do with wild flowers. You have to think laterally again.

Sandhill cranes in Michigan

Here's a hint.

And here's the flower.

Cranesbill

This plant in a local hedgerow is, in effect, a form of wild geranium.

I need to identify it further from the shape of its petals and its leaves (which you can't see here.)

Varieties include, bloody, cut-leaved,  hedgerow, meadow, round-leaved, shining and wood cranesbill. I shall have to look more closely at it this year.