Wild Plants

The countryside around Wherwell is a veritable paradise for naturalists. The differing habitats bring a tremendous variety to all forms of wild life including trees and flowers. My husband and I have listed these within a two mile radius of the village and have a total so far of three hundred and ninety one. Two hundred and sixty nine species grow in our garden, the majority in the area that we have left wild and which is part of the old railway line.

 

The first flower of the year, the coltsfoot, appears in February. It has a pretty dandelion-like bloom and grows where vegetation is sparse. Soon the lesser celandine, with its glossy golden petals, stars the roadside banks and the cherry-plum comes into flower in the hedgerows.

 

In the forest the pussy willow buds burst and when fully out make the tree look like a giant cream coloured powder puff. Under foot demure violets of varying hue peep through the snow-white drifts of wood anemones. A little later primroses dot the woodland glades and the forest is finally covered with a mist of bluebells. By April buds on the oak, birch, beech and other trees open into leaf, making the light too dim for most flowers to compete. The spring glory of the woods is over for another year.

 

There are now white clouds of blackthorn along the lanes; this will be followed by the equally showy hawthorn and guelder rose, while below on the banks a foaming froth of cow parsley adds to the beauty of the scene. Later will come rough chervil and hedge parsley.

 

Meanwhile, down by the river, the marsh marigold has opened its flowers making a brilliant splash of gold in the wet Spring meadows. In a week or so the cuckoo-flower can be seen. It owes its name to the fact that it blooms when the cuckoo arrives in this country. Next to appear are the pink ragged robin and the bogbean, with large trifoliate leaves and conspicuous spikes of white flowers, the petals fringed inside with white hairs like Turkish towelling. The yellow flag and deep pink marsh orchis follow and the water meadows take over from the forest with their display.

 

In the drier pastures in April, patches of cowslip, gay and beloved with its fragrant yellow flowers can still be found, though becoming ever more scarce. Big white moon.

 

Daisies shoot up in May and smother the smaller plants, but here and there, where the turf is short grows the milkwort, white, pink and blue. The frail little fairy flax trembles in the breeze and the birdsfoot trefoil spreads in cushions over the ground. Wild vetches abound including the hairy tare, with tiny white flowers and purple tufted vetch which, like the yellow meadow pea, often climbs up hedges. The grass vetchling, with delicate pure crimson blooms has leaves so like grass it often remains undiscovered. Indeed it is quite a rarity as is the Fyfield pea which grows only in one or two places.

 

June is the month when delicious perfumes fill the air: sweet briar after rain and honeysuckle at night. The horseshoe vetch and white clover attract the bees with their subtle fragrance. Lady's bedstraw, which smells of new mown hay is followed by the aromatic scent of thyme and marjoram. There is now a profusion of mauve field scabious, purple knapweed, rosebay willow herb, yellow parsnip, mullein and St. John's wort. Woven between them is the lacy white flower of the hedge bedstraw and wild carrot. Dog rose and old man's beard cascade down the railway embankment and drape themselves over the hedges.

By August the season of flowering is on the wane, but rest harrow, teasel and the sweet scented, handsome musk thistle are still in bloom. Purple gentian, small scabious and the occasional pink or white pyramidal orchis can still be found on the short turf .

 

There are so many plants I have not mentioned, but a longer list might become tedious. To conclude I would add that many of our species are in danger of extinction as more land is becoming part of the 'concrete jungle'. With the introduction of the Wild Creatures and Plants Act of 1975 it is now illegal to uproot wild plants on any land without the permission of the occupier. This will help to preserve them, but indiscriminate picking of flowers prevents regeneration. Since we came to live in Wherwell many primroses have vanished from the woods and marsh marigolds and bogbeans by the river are getting less each year. Please, therefore do not pick the flowers, but leave them for others to enjoy.

 

Jeanne M. Nolder .(1976)