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Nature and Culture in Cologne

Overseas Tours - other, Travel by Rail

Why Cologne? Well, the first reason for our trip there was a concert of Russian music at the superb modern concert hall, but it was too good an opportunity to miss to make it a short break by train, and explore an unknown city. First stop of course was the monumentally magnificent cathedral: surely the apogee of gothicry?! Terrifying but inspiring in equal measure, and some lovely modern glass touches.

But as always we also sought out the green spaces, the refuges from the bustle and air quality of the city. One such was the Botanical Garden, five hectares of tranquillity, a short distance from the city centre. Interesting plantings – some formal, some less so, although never over-tidy – and some exciting plants, both native and ornamental kept us occupied for half a day. It could have been much longer!

Labelling was comprehensive, and largely accurate (a bête-noire of every botanist), and the maintenance is clearly based on good ecological and environmental principles: Rabbits grazing the lawns, and holes in the Hostas speak volumes! As did the Red Squirrels, noisy Marsh Frogs, dragonflies and a whole host of other insects….

Best of all, it was free, and clearly well-used and well-loved, by locals and visitors alike. Just as it should be. Just as anything which supports civilised thinking and behaviour in an uncertain world should be. Well done Cologne!

And then was the municipal Melaten cemetery, a little further out, more than 40 hectares and 55,000 graves, set amongst old mixed woodland. Again, the site is tended, but not in a precious manner: it is as much nature reserve and country park as last resting place. Buzzards were breeding in the treetops, while the diversity of insects – a mix of familiar and unknown to us – again kept us occupied for several hours….

Every city has places like these. Every city-dweller needs places like these, the source of physical and mental well-being as well as refuge for the wildlife itself from the rigours of modern countryside management and overdevelopment. Thank you Cologne for providing such places free of charge, which taken together with the music, architecture, food and beer we sampled, made it a perfect city break.

 

 

King George V Playing Field : the new wildflower meadows #wildwivenhoe

Britain's Wildlife, WildWivenhoe

After several years of persuasion, cajoling and  guilt-tripping, Wivenhoe finally has its new hay meadows. I may return to this in future posts, how and why it took so long, and why the need for serious positive action from Wivenhoe Town Council became so imperative: the reasons are not altogether positive. But for now, let us celebrate what looks like becoming a great success…

This afternoon, we took a wander along to the KGV wildflower meadows, and were delighted to see how it is coming along after the first couple of months of no mowing. The patchwork of grasses is developing well, with perhaps 10 or 12 species in flower, each with a different variation of the green theme.

The Buttercups and Dandelions, so noticeable a month ago, have now largely gone over. But their role in nectar and pollen supply for insects (and in the colour palette for us) has been taken over by other species, including some good patches of Bird’s-foot-trefoil and Lesser Stitchwort, neither of which we had noticed in the close-mown sward previously. Equally exciting, albeit not yet in flower, was a clump of Lady’s Bedstraw, always a sign of high-quality grassland, and not at all common around Wivenhoe.

In just ten minutes, we recorded both Small Heath and Common Blue butterflies; Silver Y and various grass moths; and a variety of other insects, including Thick-thighed Beetle. All in all, a very promising start….

#WildWivenhoe Botany & Bug Walks: June – 41 Acres

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, WildWivenhoe

’41 Acres’, ‘The bit behind the Allotments’, ‘the southern end of Wivenhoe Heath’, whatever you like to call it, was certainly an interesting venue for our June’s Botany and Bug walk. Thank you to everyone who joined us, especially the hay-fever sufferers who found it challenging but nevertheless enjoyable…

The main reason for hay-fever stress was pollen from the many and varied grasses which inhabit this area – land formerly gravel pits but which is now filled in and in recent times been allowed to do its own thing. On an early summer morning, slightly damp and very humid it was certainly lush and fertile, but slightly worryingly, unless this land is managed, it is in danger of becoming too overgrown and losing its wildlife interest.

So, what did we see? The aforementioned grasses, with their wonderful English names – the peppery-tasting False Oat-grass, Cock’s-foot and Yorkshire Fog – were all looking splendid.

 

Pretty pea-flowers of various types were easily spotted, including tares, vetches, medicks and the beautiful Grass Vetchling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A botanical highlight had to be the Southern Marsh-orchids, maybe thirty of their purple spikes visible among the dense undergrowth. This is one of the species that will eventually be pushed out if nothing is done to control its neighbours, as has probably already happened to some of the other orchids found here until three years ago.

 

 

 

 

Insects were out in force. The brightly-coloured Cardinal beetle was easy to see, but other more camouflaged beasties were equally interesting: the rather peculiar European Cinchbug family clinging to a grass leaf, the bagworm moth encased in its suit of dead grass stems, and the unidentifiable but undeniably cute saw-fly caterpillar.

A couple of species of ladybird were noticed – a tiny vegetarian 24-spot, one of the smaller types, and in contrast the much larger Harlequin, a voracious eater of aphids, but unfortunately also other ladybirds. Watch out Mr 24 spot!

Thick-thighed Beetles were looking polished and sparkling in the sunshine, but the piece de resistance had to be the fabulous Fox Moth, spotted  by Glyn.

Our next walk will be on Sunday 15th July – a different date to that advertised, (we wouldn’t want to compete with The Tendring Show), at Lower Lodge.  Meeting place will be the Outdoor Gym, easily accessible from Dixon Way, or the railway crossing from the trail, or the Rosabelle woodland car park. If you would like to book a place, please contact Jude (jmgibson1959@btinternet.com 07503240387).  Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

Faeries at the bottom of the (pub) garden

Britain's Wildlife

A hard morning in Cambridge, helping elder daughter move….on a day of intense humidity, oppressive heat, after several similar days, as yet unrelieved by a decent thunderstorm. So what were we to do other than drop in to one of our favourite pubs, the Shoulder of Mutton in Aldham, for a well-earned drink on the way home.

Sitting in the garden, flanked by the River Colne, here only three or four metres across, we soon noticed the wraith-like forms of Banded Demoiselles fluttering over the river, resting on bankside trees, and flying all around us, favouring patches of nettles and long grass on which to settle. Just a few females, green and demure in a glossy sort of way, but hordes of males, gossamer wings with ink-spots; shining blue body; wing attachment points highlighted in red.

Too sticky to walk far, but a potter downriver of just a couple of hundred metres revealed the scale of the emergence: today must have been ‘Peak Demoiselle’. Dozens of them were on the wing, and spreading well away from their normal riverine environs. And humid warmth clearly did it for many other invertebrates as well. The undergrowth was teeming with life, with soldier, cardinal and leaf beetles, weevils, ladybirds, picture-winged flies, hoverflies, crab spiders and scorpion-flies to name just a few of the myriad of critters we saw and photographed. Enjoy this virtual ramble down the River Colne!

 

The Gunnersbury Triangle: antidote to the modern world?

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

I’ve written before about ‘accidental nature reserves’ – see Canvey Wick – where by virtue of accidents of geography, history or simply timing , nature has survived and thrived, often providing a striking counterpoint to the noise, bustle and stress of modern life.

Gunnersbury Triangle is one such place: in the heart of west London, its ‘accidental birth’ began in the late 19th century when it was isolated from the wider world, from the march of civilisation, by the creation of a triumvirate of railway lines. It remained in low-key use as allotments for railway workers for some time thereafter, and was partly moulded by gravel extraction. But all that ended long ago – presumably the railways became too busy to permit easy and regular access – and nature was allowed to reclaim its former domain.

The next accident – of timing – came in the 1980s, when as land values soared, it was threatened with development. Fortunately, this was one of the heydays of the Greater London Ecology Unit, and our friend David Goode and his colleagues, supporting an active grass-roots campaign group, convinced a public inquiry in a landmark planning decision for the natural world, that it should, indeed must, be spared as an essential urban green space.

We made our belated first visit yesterday, and immediately realised how valuable those efforts were, as well as the more recent, far from accidental, management activities of the London Wildlife Trust. To sit by the pond in mid-afternoon was a revelation. Virtually all the sound of the city was damped by the foliage, save for the occasional low rumble of a passing train, or a plane descending into Heathrow. But not just damped by the leaves, also masked by the volume of bird-song: Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Best of all a duet of Song Thrushes, one of which at least was sampling the sounds of the city in its repertoire.

And not just birds, but a whole ecosystem of plants and animals, cushioning us from the world. Orange-tip and Speckled Wood butterflies; Wasp-beetle; a Heliophanus jumping-spider; Hemlock Water-dropwort and Pendulous Sedge; and a whole raft of other beetles, bugs, galls, hoverflies, damselflies and mayflies to mention but a few. Like a lost world on a distant mountain plateau, life going on seeming oblivious to the constraints of its geography.

Never have I been so struck by the positive effect of nature’s sights and sounds in providing refuge from the world. Gunnersbury Triangle and places like it, of which there are examples in every town or city, are and must continue to be havens, shelters, places to which one can retreat, either physically or mentally, when the ‘real world’ gets too much.

Or perhaps we should reverse that thinking: a real world refuge from the artifice of modern life…

Spring in the Spanish Pyrenees: a cornucopia of biodiversity

Overseas Tours - Pyrenees

Despite rather inclement weather, with a strong, cold, northerly wind in the first few days, following on from a generally cold and late spring, the Spanish Pyrenees certainly lived up to its reputation as a European wildlife hotspot with Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays last week.

The day we arrived saw significant snowfalls above 1700m, so we kept low in the Canal de Berdún and the more southerly Pre-Pyrenees in the first half of the week, seeking some shelter from the wind. But the latter half was spent in the heart of the mountain, reaching 1600m in the glorious Aísa valley, where the floral displays rendered outstanding glacial landscape the best I have ever seen.

Bird migration was still under way, with Redstarts, Honey Buzzards, flycatchers and Common Swifts heading north, and the Rock Thrushes, Bee-eaters and Golden Orioles were just setting up home, lending drama to the resident Griffon Vultures and Lammergeiers…as if any further drama was needed! The gory Griffon feeding frenzy on a recently-dead horse by the roadside showed nature’s recyclers at their best (and worst), but at least it was a free-range event, not a staged feeding opportunity.

Low down, around our base at Casa Sarasa in Berdún, the Badlands were blooming with a rich array of flowers, brightening the arid, marly landscape; these included a good range of orchids, including Lady, Military, Burnt, Champagne and several Ophrys species and hybrids.

Higher up, the flowers were if anything even more showy, with Elder-flowered Orchids, Spring and Trumpet Gentians, primulas, buttercups and a host of other delights, studding the turf with splashes of intense colour.

Late spring should be a good time for reptiles, amphibians, insects and other invertebrates, although this year certainly lacked the volume of warmer springs. But some provided other highlights of the trip, including a couple of confiding, pristine Spanish Festoons and an equally confiding smart male Green Lizard.

And then there was the moth trap, a great feature of Casa Sarasa over the past couple of years, which benefits from the appropriate licence as required in Spain. We managed three nights’ trapping, although the first was very unproductive. The second also had few moths, but three of these were Giant Peacocks – quality not quantity!

And then the third night surpassed all expectations: two more Giant Peacocks, two Tigers (Cream-spot and Chaste Pellicle), and three Hawks (Small Elephant, Privet and Spurge).

And topping the lot, a Spanish Moon Moth, an icon of the Pyrenees, the Lammergeier of the moth world, a veritable flying Art Nouveau brooch. My third ever, and made me a very happy man!

As always with Honeyguide, a contribution is made by every participant on every tour to a conservation project in the places we visit. The recipient on this tour is SEO Aragon, the Birdlife Partner in the region, which does so much to protect and manage habitats for birds and other wildlife. I am proud to help support this work. But why is it not industry standard to put something back into the places a tour company visits. Honeyguide may only be a small company, but I like to hope it is leading the way, and that eventually all others will follow suit. Given that tourism is essentially exploitative, isn’t it right that every provider should do what they can to safeguard its most important assets: its destinations?

Wildlife Galore in Cockaynes Reserve

Britain's Wildlife, Cockaynes Reserve, WildWivenhoe

On a sunny, not too hot, day like today, it is a great time to go out and wander around Cockaynes Reserve with a camera. Even when there is quite a breeze, it is always possible to find sheltered nooks, where insects often congregate and can be snapped without wind-blur.

No time today to provide a full written commentary, so I will let the flowers and critters speak for themselves…


Mouse-eared Hawkweed

Ground-ivy – a magnet for bee-flies and other insects

Wild Strawberry

Changing Forget-me-not – its flowers start out yellow in bud, then fade to cream before ending up blue

Sweetly-scented Holly flowers – the males (left), with functional stamens, and females (right) with non-pollen-producing stamens, perhaps the Holly-equivalent of the male nipple?


Marsh Horsetail fertile, spore-bearing ‘cone’

Bonfire Moss, as its name suggests often found on recently-burnt ground

Anther Smut on Red Campion; the smut fungus infects and infests the plant, takes over the plant’s pollen-dispersal structures and appropriates them to disperse its own sooty spores.

On now to the insects, starting with a selection of True Bugs:

Gorse-Shield-bug

A plant-bug Harpocera thoracica: male (L) and the very different looking female (R)

The nymph of another plant-bug Miris striata, looking and acting for all purposes like an ant

and not actually a bug, but the shed skin of an early-stage nymph of the Forest Bug

Our first soldier-beetle of the season, Cantharis nigricans

A couple of hoverflies, both from difficult groups – (L) Pipiza  and (R) Syrphus

The Stripe-legged Robberfly Dioctria baumhaueri

A dance-fly Empis tessellate

The wasp-like Nomad Bee Nomada flava

Small Gorse Mining-bee Andrena ovatula



A buttercup-full of tiny moths Micropterix calthella – this family is the only group of moths and butterflies which have jaws, to feed on pollen

Azure Damselfly male

Mating pair of Large Red Damselflies

A pristine Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly

Last of all we reach the spiders (arachnophobe warning!)

A stretch-spider Tetragnatha species

Larinioides cornutus

and finally, a Metellina species.

Unravelling the mysteries of our Bluebells

Britain's Wildlife, WildWivenhoe

As the Bluebell extravaganza in Wivenhoe Wood starts to fade, I have been reflecting on the wonder that is our Bluebell. An almost universally-loved feature of our spring countryside, but one that is if anything underappreciated. It is a feature of the here and now: here, as it is restricted to the Atlantic fringes of northern Europe; now, as in the past when we still had Wild Boar, their rootlings would have prevented the massed displays we now take for granted.


Native Bluebell


Spanish Bluebell

But as is well known, our native Bluebells are under threat, particularly from the Spanish Bluebell, not by displacement but by dilution – insidious genetic pollution. The Spanish species, grown in gardens here for a couple of centuries at least, is less vibrantly coloured, more feebly scented, with splayed rather than recurved petals, altogether a less droopingly delicate plant, with flowers all around its stems, rather than one-sided. Unfortunately, as plants so often do, the two species readily hybridise. And the hybrids breed freely with other hybrids or either parental species. The result? A continuous suite of intermediates between the two parental species. 

Sometimes those hybrid intermediates are quite clearly so…


Hybrid Bluebell

…but sometimes less clearly, in which case you need to look more closely at the flower structure, as I have been doing this week. 

To be a true native Bluebell, the ‘petals’ (actually technically termed tepals, as the six segments representing the sepals and the petals are the same shape and colour as each other) should be strongly recurved; the pollen-producing anthers should be cream in colour; and the stamen adjacent to each outer tepal should be fused to the surface of the tepal for at least 75% of its length. Incidentally, all this came as a surprise to me as a lifelong botanist: I had simply never delved into bluebell flower structure before. Never knew about the stamens fused to the tepals, nor the fact that the stamens associated with the inner whorl of tepals are shorter, attached only at the bottom of the tepal, and the inner anthers burst open to release pollen later than the outer anthers. Such a revelation!


Above: close-ups of a native Bluebell flower

In contrast, ‘good’ Spanish Bluebells should have splayed tepals; blue anthers; and the stamen adjacent to each outer tepal should be fused to the surface of the tepal for less than 75% of its length.


Above: Close-ups of Spanish Bluebell flower

And then there are the hybrids, intermediate in detailed flower features as well as gross morphology.


Above: close-ups of Hybrid Bluebell

Trouble is that whereas plants may look either of the true parental species, detailed examination of anther colour and stamen insertion etc often reveals a degree of hybrid ancestry, anomalous features which indicate genetic pollution through the pollen dispersal activities of bees. The closer one looks, the less clear-cut the story becomes!

#WildWivenhoe Botany & Bug Walks: May, to Barrier Marsh and Grange Wood

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, WildWivenhoe

Another very enjoyable Botany and Bug walk this morning, and our thanks to all of you who were able to join us.  The perfect sunlight enhanced the landscape, with a multitude of green hues on the foliage as well as the splendid sparkling water and shining mud banks.

 Much of the flora on show is very relevant to our part of the coast, including the Scurvy Grass and Thanet Weed, salt-tolerator and invasive plant which arrived through the ports of the south-east respectively.

 

The Rose Rust fungus, not seriously damaging to the host plant, was a very colourful addition to the morning. Once we entered the shady wooded part of the walk, the flora changed to include Yellow Archangel, Herb Robert and of course Bluebells.  The native Bluebell was in abundance at Grange Wood, and close examination revealed cream pollen on the stamens. The larger Spanish Bluebell, so common in gardens and a risk to our native species through genetic pollution, has blue pollen, which is one way of telling the difference!  Another is the difference in distribution of flowers around the stem: natives have flowers on one plane, whereas the Spanish are placed all around the stem.

 

 We were of course also on the lookout for bugs and beasties, and search was rewarded with the splendid Squash Bug.  St Mark’s Flies -all dangling legs and fearsome-looking, but entirely harmless – were on the wing in fine number, many feeding on umbellifers, and others, less fortunate, entangled in spider’s webs awaiting their certain fate.  A field day for local spider population!

 

Several nests of the highly-irritant Brown Tail moth caterpillars were seen.  Although interesting to observe, it isn’t recommended to touch the insect as a nasty rash may result.  As with all wildlife, respect is the key. And remember, they are a good food source for one of out most loved birds, the Cuckoo. 

On the way back some of us were fortunate to espy a Large Red Damselfly basking and soaking up the sun. The first damselfly of the summer, and hopefully a sign of a good one for weather and wildlife alike.

 

Spring in WildWivenhoe, Part 4 – an ever-changing tapestry of colour

Britain's Wildlife, WildWivenhoe

Not so long ago, we were in the grip of cold, damp weather which had set back the onset of Spring by two weeks or more. But now, in response to recent unseasonable warmth, it feels like it is racing to catch up and make up for lost time. Swifts have been scything the airwaves over the town for three days already, three weeks ahead of schedule…

In Wivenhoe Wood, the Wood Anemones, just opening a fortnight ago and which often retain the power of their display for a month, are already past their best. The snowflake blanket  of Anemones and Blackthorn is beginning to look ragged, and other white delights are starting to fill the gaps – witness the creeping patches of Greater Stitchwort and, more sparingly, Barren Strawberry, its petals so well-separated that the green sepals show through. ‘Barren’ because it fruits are hard, not the succulent red flavour bombs of Wild Strawberry, whose flowers are yet to show.

Lifting the colour into the canopy, the large white clusters of Wild Cherry flowers provide a counterpoint to the dangly, insignificant catkins of English Oak.

And other hues are being added to the woodland palette, especially the intense, fragrant blue of Bluebells, now approaching their peak, on time if not a shade early: spring has been telescoped into a few frantic days. Catch them if you can, especially on a still, sunny morning when the fugitive, heady scent is almost intoxicating. Then waiting in the wings are the reds (Campion) and yellows (Archangel), buds straining to sprinkle their pointillistic colour on the pastel background, before the ferny foliage of Cow Parsley masks it with emerald-green, and the leaves of the tree canopy expand fully, marking the arrival of summer.

On the edge of the wood, and out into Lower Lodge meadows, the yellow is already here. Broom buds have burst, and the grass is studded with the nectar- and pollen-filled sunbursts of Dandelions in flower. A beacon for all manner of insects, they offer their bounty to all, unlike the Red and White Dead-nettles whose two-lipped flowers restrict their bounty to insects of a certain size, which are heavy enough to open the mouth of the flower when they land on the lower lip. The importance of Dandelions in particular is such that it justifies leaving the lawnmower alone for a few weeks yet.

Where springs merge at the foot of the slope, Cuckoo-flower is now blooming, pale pink, sometimes almost homeopathically-so. And just in time: the first Cuckoos are now calling, and the first Orange-tips are on the wing. Whereas the link between Cuckoo and Cuckoo-flower is merely one of temporal coincidence. the butterfly has a more pressing biological link, often laying is eggs on the stalks of the flower. Such are the complexities of Nature’s calendar: beautiful, the fruits of eons of evolution, but sadly all too likely to be thrown out of kilter by climate change.

 

 

 

Menorca: Island in Bloom

Overseas Tours - Menorca

Over the past five years, my tours to Menorca have been restricted to the autumn: an arid landscape, enlivened by birds, both resident and migratory; the second spring of flowering bulbs; and an array of exciting, often large insects – see here for example.

What a contrast to last week: a wet winter has stimulated the island into bloom, with an abundance I have rarely seen before. Fields of Crown Daisies, sheets of Tassel Hyacinths and Wild Gladioli, banks of Italian Sainfoin, and orchids almost everywhere. Pyramidal, Sawfly, Mirror, Small-flowered Tongue and Bumblebee were the commonest, with fewer Yellow Bee, Violet Bird’s-nest and Balearic – pretty much all that we can expect to see on Menorca at this time of year.

Most of the endemic plants were not yet in flower – for them it is best in May – but Balearic Cyclamen and Dragon Arum, together with Senecio rodriguezii and Astragalus balearicus gave us plenty of localised botanical interest.

 

Despite the absence of significant falls, migrant birds were trickling through, and our frequent wanders down the drive of Matchani Gran often produced northern migrants -Common Redstart, Wood Warbler and Pied Flycatcher – along with local-breeding summer visitors – Balearic Woodchat Shrike and Orphean Warbler – and the resident Hoopoe, Stone Curlew and Booted Eagle. Elsewhere, great views of Bittern, Blue Rock Thrush, Egyptian Vulture and Audouin’s Gull contributed to a week’s total of 92 species.

Insects were relatively few and far between, and generally quite small. However, small doesn’t necessarily mean insignificant as the Golden-striped Tortoise-beetles below show.

Add to that Mediterranean Demoiselle, Oil-beetle, Egyptian Locust and a Chinese Oak Silk-moth, as big as my hand….

….and Balearic Scorpion, Hermann’s Tortoise, Moorish Gecko and the spectacular landscape and geology, all the elements were in place for a very successful trip, despite somewhat indifferent weather. 

As always with Honeyguide tours (and uniquely so), each participant on every tour pays a surcharge which goes directly to conservation projects in the places we visit. From our Menorcan trips, we support GOB Menorca – Grupo Balear de Ornitología y Defensa de la Naturaleza, the Birdlife Partner and main environmental voluntary body in the Balearics. This year the donation amounted to some €600, equivalent to around thirty memberships for an organisation which relies for funding almost wholly on membership receipts. And that membership is just 1350 people….

My previous blog details some of the projects run by GOB, and especially the Agronatural Farms project which our donation will go to support, as we heard from GOB President Carlos Coll who visited one evening in recognition of the value of our support.

Thank you Menorca for providing us with such a super holiday, fittingly in the year it celebrates its 25th year as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and thank you GOB for helping to keep the island like we want to see it!

For more information about GOB Menorca and its work, please visit english.gobmenorca.com

If you enjoyed reading this and would like to know more detail about the trip, a fully illustrated report will be on the Honeyguide website honeyguide.co.uk in due course.

 

Spring in WildWivenhoe, Part 3 – the ‘little white jobs’

Britain's Wildlife, WildWivenhoe

My previous post took a look at some of the showier flowers appearing around Wivenhoe right now. But there are others, less showy and more of an acquired taste perhaps: the ‘little white jobs’, of which there are many in our gardens and waysides.

Several of these are in one family – the Brassicaceae, or cabbage family – and easily recognised as such by their flower structure, usually having four petals and sepals, six stamens (male naughty bits), and a single female part (style) in the centre. After that, the separation into species is best done by looking at the distinctive fruits and seed pods, which in the annuals below are produced only a very short time after the first flowers.

Shepherd’s-purse (above) is so-called because of the lobed, almost heart-shaped seed pods.

 

In contrast, Hairy Bittercress has long, thin, upright seed pods, the tips of the pods projecting above the flowers and so distinguishing from other Bittercresses.

 And smallest of all, Common Whitlow-grass, barely 6cm tall usually, and found especially where the soil is on the sandy side. Definitely worth adopting the Botanist’s Pose for, nose to the ground and bum in the air, check out its petals, each deeply divided into two lobes, its pointed oval pods, and then its leaves covered in whitish, branched hairs – just click on the right-hand photo above to get a closer look.

Finally for now, one further species which may look similar, but is soon revealed to be in a different family altogether. The Caryophyllaceae (campion family) generally have five sepals and petals; five to ten stamens, and three to five styles. Common Chickweed (below) shows this well, especially the five petals, again divided to the base, and so looking like ten; and three female styles, each bearing a pollen-receptive stigma.