New Zealand Flax, Phormium tenax, Premier Inn, North Chesterfield.
Phormium
Category: Flowers
Beetroot and Marigolds
Immediately I start drawing, a hoverfly zooms in and settle on the lime green top of my pen. As I work there’s a continuous chiff chaff and a v. loud blackbird, with house martins chittering overhead.
Despite several overnight frost setbacks our veg is making progress.
Groundsel, Fern and Sail Plant
A closer look at some of the uninvited plants which have made themselves at home around the raised bed behind the pond: groundsel in the disturbed soil (we do occasionally dig it) on top of the bed, lungwort at the edge of the wood-chip path and Spanish bluebell in damper soil.
A couple of house plants: a fern and our new sail plant, Spathiphyllum.
Peace Lily
The Peace Lily, Spathiphyllum, isn’t a lily but a member of the Arum family, so related to Cuckoo Pint, also known as Wild Arum.
Poinsettia and Hyacinth
As I draw the hyacinth, there’s a scent that reminds me of bluebell woods, a reminder that in a week’s time the days will be starting to get longer so spring isn’t too far away.
Knapweed Seedheads
Seedheads of common knapweed, Centaurea nigra, from my patch of wildflower meadow at the end of the garden.
Smooth Sow-thistle
Growing beside our compost bins, Smooth Sow-thistle, Sonchus oleraceus, is a common weed of disturbed ground.
The Collins flower guide mentions the ‘acute, spreading auricles’ at the base of the leaves as a diagnostic feature.
It steadily flopped as I drew it but since I finished it has perked up again, so I might get another chance to add a drawing of the shape of the leaf.
Guest Artist
A guest illustrator in my nature diary in the July ‘Dalesman’: Jenny Hawksley, who joined us for a lightning tour of the North Yorks Moors and coast last summer drew the garland of wild flowers.
Curled Dock
Fine strands of dodder twirl around the clusters of flowers at the top of this curled dock’s stem. Dodder is a parasitic climbing plant, a member of the convolvulus family.
Stoneycliffe Wood
The wild garlic is at its most deliciously pungent this morning at the top, marshier end of Stoneycliffe Wood Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve.
Wild garlic, also known as ransons, Allium ursinum.
A tattered peacock butterfly, Nymphalis io, pauses to feed on the flowers.
Roe Deer Slots
Our neighbours have spotted deer in the valley recently so I was on the look-out for tracks. The size – about 2 inches, 5cm – fits roe deer, the species that is often seen in the area.
Greater Woodrush
Greater woodrush (also known as great wood-rush), Luzula syvatica, is an indicator of dry acid soil.
It has clusters of small rush-like flowers.
It has long white hairs along the edges of its shiny leaves, a feature of woodrushes that you don’t see in grasses, sedges or rushes.
Bluebell
As I walk through a drift of bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, at the top end of the valley I get a waft of hyacinth scent, but nowhere near as pungent as the wild garlic.
Wood Speedwell
Wood speedwell, Veronica montana, straggles over a mossy log by a woodland track. It’s a plant of moist, neutral soils, often found in ancient woodland.