Brenda writes: “It only takes a few warm days at this time of year for new plants to come into flower. Back at Benslow for the mixed wind and strings course, I had a walk around the garden today, noting all the plants I saw last week, as the robins sang and long-tailed, great, and blue tits flitted around from tree to tree. No sign of the injured magpie; I do hope it survived and has moved elsewhere.
There were two new flowers today. I have been seeing petty spurge fairly regularly and there is some in the Benslow garden, but today I discovered a different spurge in flower, sun spurge, which has much bigger leaves around the flowers and a red stalk with few or no leaves. The field guide describes it as a “common weed”!
The other flower is a particular favourite of mine, and one of the more easily identifiable of the speedwells – lilac ivy-leaved speedwell. It is recognisable by the shape of the leaves, which are very different from other speedwells and looks a bit like an ivy leaf. It flowers from March, with tiny lilac flowers, and is a plant which sprawls on the ground.
It’s easy to not notice when plants come to the end of their flowering season. The last of the snowdrops in one corner of the garden have really come to the end for another year and will die back now, making way for what comes next: That is the joy of flower-watching!
New species for March 22nd:
Flowers: sun spurge, lilac ivy-leaved speedwell
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 147
Moths = 13
Wildflowers = 27