Latin Name: Buddleia davidii
Size: Grows to around 3.5m high.
Distribution: Found throughout the UK.
Flowering months: July to September.
Habitat: Roadside verges and areas of waste ground.
Special features: Often called the butterfly bush because when it flowers it a popular food plant for butterflies.
Most of the buddleia bushes found in gardens and in the countryside of Britain are descended from stock imported from the cliffs of western China in the early 1900's.
The rapid spread of the buddleia throughout Britain is due to its lightweight seeds which are easily distributed on a light breeze.
Latin name: Hyacinthoides non-scripta
Size: Grows to a height of around 40cms.
Distribution: Found throughout the UK.
Flowering months: April to June.
Habitat: Found mainly in woodlands, especially coppiced woods.
Special features: Sometimes called 'Wild Hyacinths', bluebells are normally found growing in wooded areas throughout the U.K. The bluebell wood in flower seems to be a very British spectacle. Nowhere else in the world do they grow in such abundance.
In early spring the bluebell bulbs push up shiny narrow leaves through the leaf litter on the woodland floor. The delicate bell-shaped flowers hang from a straight central stem.
Bluebells flower early in the year, between April and June. In this way they can make good use of all the available light, before the trees above them become covered with leaves, and block out the sun.
When the bluebells start flowering, many butterflies are just starting to become active after their winter hibernation and can take advantage of their nectar.
Latin name: Digitalis purpurea
Size: Grows to a height of around 150cms.
Distribution: Found throughout the UK.
Flowering months: June to August.
Habitat: Found mostly in woodland clearings, woodland edges and grassy banks.
Special features: The flowers of the Foxglove are tubular, like the fingers of a glove, and its Latin name Digitalis literally means thimble. One single stem can have up to 80 flowers.
Latin name: Ulex europaeus
Size: Grows to approximately 2 metres.
Distribution: Found throughout the UK.
Flowering Months seen: All year round
Habitat: Heathland, roadsides, scrubland
Special features: An evergreen shrub covered with rigid spines. There are three varieties of gorse found in the UK; the Common Gorse (shown above), the Western Furze (Ulex gallii) and the Dwarf Furze (Ulex minor). At any time of the year at least one species of gorse is in bloom.
If you stand beside a gorse bush in summer you can hear the seed pods popping open. The heat of the sun dries them out, and as they crack open they twist and flick the seeds up to three metres from the parent plant.
The familiar red berries of this tree are a great food source for the bird population!
Needs no description other than being the same family as the familiar bullrush
Most of todays modern hybrids are derived from this plant!
The smell of this plant gives it away, it can be quite over powering especially when brushed against!
The following plants I have yet to identify! If anyone can help with identification, please e-mail.
