Garlic Mustard

Another flower photo from last spring: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).  Note the small wasp caught in mid-flight.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2009-04-18.

Germander Speedwell

From last spring: germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys).  According to John Hutchinson (British Wild Flowers, Volume 2, Penguin Books, 1955),

The flowers of this plant are very beautiful when seen through a hand-lens.  Nectar is secreted in a fleshy disk around the base of the ovary and protected by hairs partly across the mouth of the corolla.  The two stamens are lateral and divergent and are seized by an insect alighting on the flower and drawn against its body, on which pollen is deposited and carried to the stigma of another flower.

The pollen at the ends of the stamens is visible in the above photo as the white blobs in front of the left and right petals.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-03.

Field Scabious

A flower photo from last summer: field scabious (Knautia arvensis).  The name scabious derives from the plant being used to treat skin diseases such as scabies.  This is what its stem and leaves look like:

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-16.

Wild Carrot

Back in the middle of July, I was photographing an insect on the above umbel when I noticed a single purple flower in the middle of all the white ones.  I at first assumed this must be an abberation, but I then noticed a nearby plant also had a single purple flower at the centre of its umbel.  Up until then I had been having some difficulty in identifying white umbellifers, in particular I was unsure as to which were harmless and those, such as water dropworts, which were deadly poisonous.  So I decided to take several photos of this plant to help me identify it later when I got back home.  Also, knowing the plant often helps in identifying the insects found on it, and this can also work the other way round too. 

On getting back home I found that it was wild carrot (Daucus carota), the ancestor of our cultivated carrots, and also known in the USA as Queen Anne's lace.  The underside of the umbels were like this:

And the leaves looked like this:

A month later and the flowers had become spiny seeds:

And the umbel had curled up at the edges to form a prickly cup:

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-16 (first three) and on 2009-08-22 (last two).

Tormentil

Common tormentil (Potentilla erecta).  From our summer holiday.

Photo taken behind Highcliff, near Guisborough, North Yorkshire, UK, on 2009-08-06.