Flowers for Dianne

Sorry for the long time no post situation. I am back in my flat in Sevenoaks but haven't got internet yet... and won't have for a few more days. So I'm writing this from Michele's house.

On Tuesday last week Dianne came to see me and we went on a plant-hunting walk. Dianne's interested in medicinal plants and has lots of knowledge, wheras plants and I have never really hit it off that well.... Between us we IDed most of what we encountered, and it was a pleasant novelty to focus on the green stuff and pretty much ignore birds/insects for a change.

Rosebay Willowherb. I actually photographed this a few days before but thought I'd include it here as we were discussing the differences between Rosebay and Great Willowherb (sadly I forgot to take a pic of the latter). There is a fine stand of this growing in front of Willow hide, and somewhat blocking the view of the very few wildfowl on the lake beyond.

This one is Angelica, a new plant for me (by which I mean one I hadn't noticed before). Very attractive it is too, with its balls of tiny white flowers. We saw other umbellifers including the rather small Yarrow (ETA - not an umbellifer but a daisy - thanks Greenie!) with its much-divided, thread-like leaves, and Hogweed (or was it Giant Hogweed - ETA - probably not, see Greenie's comment below) - very big, rather ungainly beast.

We IDed this fabulous-looking flower as Orange Hawkbit. Gorgeous colours and smart square-cut petals make it a real stunner.

OK, so I didn't completely ignore the insects. This flying flower is a Comma, which rested on a leaf as chiselled-looking as its own wings. I did get a closer shot of a different one, but I actually like the more distant pic better...

Comma the second. Bigger but more boring, in my opinion.

Some of the plants that we didn't know but figured out from our field guides were: Self-heal (mint family, short stem, cluster of purply flowers at the top), Black Horehound (another mint, longer-stemmed with small purple flowers all up the stem), Hemp Agrimony (big shrubby thing with big heads of curiously furry little pink flowers) and Water Mint (another pink fuzzy thing, but little, with the flowers in a short, rounded spike).

And a final attempt at artyness - a very noisy low-light shot of some thistledown blowing across the car park as we were leaving, the sun having long departed.