Umbel Mumbles...

Over the past, well, what seems like an eternity of weeks, I have been gradually cobbling together - amid much muttering and mumbling - the pages for the Flora of East Anglia website that cover the Apiaceae. That might sound like an unfamiliar name to some, as it was only within the past few years that the Carrot Family had its scientific name changed from the Umbelliferae to the Apiaceae. The Umbelliferae was certainly a more useful name, since it aludes to the distinctive flower structures of this family - a many-branched cluster that rather resembles the shape of an umbrella that has been turned inside out by the wind.

The carrot family is quite a large family of plants that is well represented in East Anglia and many who have tried will know that identification of the many species can sometimes be tricky. Thus, it has taken a while to try and come up with pages that will help people get to the correct identification and I may well tinker some more to make improvements over time. But for now, I think the pages seem to work quite well.

East Anglia would certainly be a different place without its carrots, parsnips, parsleys, hogweeds and associated species. The family contains a wealth of species that seem to span every habitat - often dominating the scene during their respective flowering periods. And though these species may often all seem to look the same, it is also a family of great diversity, from herbs and root vegetables to some of our most poisonous plants and most pernicious weeds! So here's a series of photographs that celebrates the exuberance of our wonderful umbellifers...

From the rarest of plants to the commonest, the open, spreading heads of massed, tiny flowers are readily recognisable and provide nectar and pollen for a huge variety of insects. Though this may seem like a familiar sight, this flowerhead belongs to perhaps our rarest umbellifer - Cambridge Milk-parsley, a species that survives in just two or three wetland sites in Cambridgeshire and which live under constant threat of their special habitats drying out and being lost for ever (Cambridge Milk-parsley, Chippenham Fen, Cambridgeshire).

Spring wouldn't be spring in East Anglia without the exuberance of Cow Parsley along a thousand miles of byways and highways. April and May belong to Cow Parsley, but other species flower later and the timing of flowering can be a useful part of the identification process (Cow Parsley, Burnham Marshes, Norfolk).

While the riotous mass of Cow Parsley flowers smothers our lane sides, a subtler sheet of knee-high whiteness appears in traditional grassland meadows and thoughtfully maintained churchyards. Spring is also the time for Common Pignut, a plant once collected for its edible root tubers. There are few places where a true carpet of this species can still be seen but it still remains widespread in the region (Common Pignut, Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk).

Can you get more 'Norfolk' than a shiny wall of Alexanders leaves in front of a flint-walled church? Despite its association with and abundance in East Anglia's coastal areas, Alexanders was originally introduced to the UK by monks for use as a salad crop. Changes in annual temperature seem to be benefiting this species and over the past 20 years or more it has been progressing inland and is already proving problematic in the preservation of some roadside nature reserves (Alexanders, Walcott Church, Norfolk).

Some plants have a less affectionate place in our hearts than the mass flowering of Cow Parsley. There can be few - if any - gardeners who have not cursed the day that Ground-elder found its way into the garden or allotment. Most umbellifers form a discreet root that sends up an individual crown of basal leaves and upright, flower-bearing stems. But Ground-elder has a mass of yellowish rhizomes that creep freely below the surface and produce a smothering mat of leaves (Ground-elder, Northrepps, Norfolk).

This family has contributed greatly to the kitchen, as well as to the medicine cabinet. Many species are still popular, such as Fennel, Coriander, Dill, Carrot, Parsnip and more, but others have somehow fallen by the wayside and survive now as curiosities of the past. Northern Angelica in one such species and is still occasionally grown in larger flower borders or historical plant collections, from where they might occasionally sneak out into the wider countryside for a time (Northern or Garden Angelica, Apothecary Garden, Norwich Cathedral).

The mass flowering of 'carroty things' seems to take place everywhere, and yet often involves some very habitat-specific species. While this might seem like a familiar scene, Fine-leaved Water-dropwort is rather fussy in its requirements and only really does well in ponds and depressions that are seasonally wet in winter and spring and dry out in summer. It does particularly well in the fascinating, glacial depressions of Breckland known as pingos (Fine-leaved Water-dropwort, Thompson Common, Norfolk).

Rock Samphire is an unusual umbellifer in that it has developed fleshy, succulent leaves that enable it to survive in salt-laden habitats without being desiccated. It favours rocky coastlines so is more common along Britain's western shores, but it finds a niche on some of the more stable sections of shingle beach in East Anglia (Rock Samphire, Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk).

Wetlands provide a home for quite a number of our native umbellifers. Perhaps the most obvious in such places is Common Angelica, a stately plant that may reach over two metres in height in wet meadows along river valleys and in wet woodland (Common Angelica, River Bure, Aylesham, Norfolk).

In contrast to the widespread Common Angelica, Cowbane is very much a special plant of the East Anglian Broads, where its saw-toothed leaves are a feature of wet dykes and channels in well-managed, species-rich fens (Cowbane, Catfield Fen, Norfolk).

Getting photos for the website certainly tested my commitment at times! River Water-dropwort was proving a difficult species to photograph for a long time as it likes to grow fully submerged in permanent water courses and can take a little finding. Once found, there's the issue of getting the photographs without ruining the camera! The summer of 2018 saw a prolonged dry spell and water levels dropped well below the norm, allowing a not too soggy wade out into the River Yare for some atmospheric shots (River Water-dropwort, Marlingford, Norfolk).

At the opposite end of the wetland spectrum to the deep water habitats of River Water-dropwort, it seems that the sprawling, leafy stems of Fool's Water-cress are happy pretty much anywhere there's some damp mud to collapse onto! This is a plant that copes well with a wide range of wetland situations and can be found even in muddy ditches beside main roads, complete with old tyres and oily run-off! (Fool's Water-cress, Kelling Quag Lane, Norfolk).

High summer sees a whole new suite of umbellifers appearing and a second flush of colour in grassland habitats. At this time of year, it's Wild Carrot that dominates the scene, a smaller plant than Cow Parsley and a widespread species in many types of dry grassland habitats along roadsides, churchyards, clifftops and similar places (Wild Carrot, East Ruston, Norfolk).

High summer sees our region's coastlines hosting the feathery, aniseed-scented foliage and yellow flowers of Common Fennel. This plant is popular for flavouring fish dishes and does well in grassy places near the coast and on tidal river walls (Common Fennel, Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk).

As well as an abundance of Common Fennel, East Anglia's coastal river walls provide a home for one of our rarest umbellifers with one of the best names - Corky-fruited Water-dropwort! This unassuming plant has persisted, despite much change and development in the area, for many years on an unremarkable stretch of grassy bank while the citizens of Ipswich pass to and fro within easy reach on a daily basis (Corky-fruited Water-dropwort, Belstead Brook, Ipswich).

The umbellifer family has its darker side, with a number of poisonous or potentially injurious species lurking in its midst. Most infamous, perhaps, is Giant Hogweed, a species originally introduced to this country as a garden curiosity. Especially in hot weather, the caustic sap of this species can leave rupturing blisters and chemical burns on bare skin and much time and effort has gone into controlling its spread. It still persists along overgrown sections of the major rivers and on waste ground, but hopefully efforts to contain it are paying off. Despite its reputation, it is nevertheless a wonderfully architectural plant and the initial interest in it is easy to understand (Giant Hogweed, Overstrand, Norfolk).

Hopefully this post gives you an insight into this fascinating family and you will be out next year, exploring East Anglia's wildlife riches and dipping into the Flora of East Anglia to check up on your identification skills!

The joys of spring - Cow Parsley in abundance in a North Norfolk village.

Catkin Time!

The word 'catkin' seems to derive from an old Dutch language and translates as kitten - the diminutive of cat. Catkins are common as the flower structure type for many of our trees and early country folk readily identified the furriness of these structures and compared them to furry animals. Indeed, the term 'pussy willow' for the furry catkins of sallows has the same root, while the longer, dangly catkins of trees such as Hazel and birch are also known as lamb's tails - again, a comparison with the familiar.

So why do we see a sudden mass of catkins on such a wide range of trees at this time of year? They are, for example, common amongst the oaks, beeches, hazels, birches, willows and poplars, as well as a few smaller groups of trees. What's the connection and why now? Well, trees are often large and stand head and shoulders above other vegetation. This puts them up into windier locations than those enjoyed by smaller plants - so why not use that to your advantage? Many trees are wind-pollinated rather than insect pollinated; to facilitate this, they produce huge volumes of pollen, since this is a rather random method of getting pollen from male flowers to female flowers; producing huge amounts will increase the chance that pollen will find its rightful destination. Another way to aid this distribution method is to have freely articulating anthers that waggle in the wind and thus shake out the pollen. So we see many species of trees having loosely connected rows of anthers, arranged in pendulous spikes that waggle in the wind. As an aid to encouraging cross-fertilisation with another tree, trees that produce catkins have the male and female flowers carried separately, with the females typically being much smaller and not pendulous. Most of these trees carry male and female flowers separately but on the same tree; but some species (notably the willows and poplars) have male and female flowers on separate trees.

But why are so many of them around right now? Well, if pollen is being shaken out into the wind to be carried afar, it helps to have as few obstacles in the way as possible. So deciduous trees produce their catkins in the spring, before leaves clothe the branches and get in the way.

Here's a few examples of the catkins that will be dangling away in our countryside this spring:

Hazel (Corylus avellana) catkins are perhaps the original 'lamb's tails' and smother the branches in late winter or early spring (some optimistic individuals appear before New Year's Day!)

Silver Birch (Betula pendula). Birch catkins are rather similar to those of Hazel, but appear later in the year with the first leaves - often not until late April or even early May - and are spotted with dark bracts.

Female Silver Birch catkins start life as an erect spike, with reddish stigmas poking out between the green, protective bracts. The become pendulous as the seeds develop.

Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is a member of the birch family and this can be seen in the structure of the male catkins, which have the pollen-bearing anthers protected from the worst of the weather by a series of bracts. 

Female Hornbeam catkins are quite different from those of birches - and very different from the male catkins. They have relatively large, leafy bracts with silky hairs that protect the white, hair-like stigmas from bad weather.

European Beech (Fagus sylvatica). Beeches have rather short, oval catkins, but they hang on long stalks that project them away from the unfurling leaves. Here you can see three male catkins on the left, with their now withered and spent anthers, then a chunkier female catkin to the right, with its 'brush' of hair-like stigmas.

The male catkins of Common Oak (Quercus robur) are typical of most oak species. They are looser and more open than the catkins of other tree families and hang in bundles rather than singly. These should be appearing in about another two weeks time, in mid-April.

Black Poplar (Populus nigra ssp. betuloides). These are the female catkins of our native Black Poplar, a rather rare species in the UK, although a recent trend to plant more has boosted the population. Poplars carry male and female flowers on separate trees and this can be useful if you find one of the many hybrid poplars that abound in our landscapes. Hybrid poplars mostly derive from deliberate cross-pollination of various forms, or selections from a range of plants to produce named clones which are all identical and propagated vegetatively. Thus, whether the tree is male or female (as determined by the flowers) is a useful part of the identification process should you find one of these.

Male catkins of native Black Poplar. The male catkins of black and hybrid poplars are red due to the colour of the pollen-bearing anthers. Poplars have the annoying habit of growing tall and flowering towards the top of the tree, but the difference between male and female catkins can be told with binoculars or by looking for fallen catkins on the ground.

Close up of a female catkin of Populus x canadensis 'Regenerata' - a widely-planted variety in East Anglia. Each bract has a whiskered fringe and has beneath it a swollen, whitish stigma, sticky and waiting to receive wind-blown pollen.

Close up of a male catkin of Populus x canadensis 'Robusta', a spreading, imposing cultivar. Beneath each fringed, whitish bract can be seen a cluster of purple-red anthers full of pollen.

The Goat Willow or Great Sallow (Salix caprea) is a common native of damp woodland and also widely planted. It is one of several shrubby willow species that is referred to as 'Pussy Willow' when the catkins first emerge, covered in silky hairs. Here, the yellow male anthers have now pushed through the silky hairs and changed the appearance of the flower head.

Female catkins of Grey Willow or Grey Sallow (Salix cinerea). Female willow catkins tend to appear narrower than the catkins of male plants as they don't have anthers that need to be pushed out into the wind. Here you can see that the silky flower head is studded with pale, greenish stigmas.

Just to show some willow variety, here's the more slender male catkin of Purple Willow (Salix purpurea), a less common species than the other sallows above, but still fairly frequent in Broadland and parts of Breckland.

If you are into solitary wasps and their intriguing life-styles, catkins can provide plenty of entertainment. These swollen lumps are not fruits, but galls, caused by the presence of tiny cynipid wasps that lay their eggs in the flower clusters and leave their larvae to develop inside. These galls are on the male flowers of a large Lucombe Oak (Quercus x crenata) in Earlham Road Cemetery, Norwich - a place where I shall be leading a tree walk later in the year!

Daphnes - A Heady Scent of Spring

The Daphnes are hugely popular as garden ornamentals and this is largely due to the remarkably strong scent of their flowers, which comes right at the time when we all need a break from the weather. We have two native daphnes in the UK - the deciduous Mezereon (Daphne mezereum) and the evergreen Spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola) - and they both flower from February to March. Both these species can be found in East Anglia, but only Spurge-laurel appears to be native here, with Mezereon favouring limestone soils elsewhere in the country.

Now is the time to get out and look for Daphnes, so I have just added them to the Flora of East Anglia website pages!

The native Spurge-laurel has greenish flowers that are tucked in amongst the leathery, evergreen leaves - perhaps to protect them a little from frosts. But their subtle appearance belies their wonderful scent which is always a real treat in the late days of winter or early in spring. I often find these while there is still snow on the ground - although maybe not this year!

Mezereon is perhaps the best known of our daphnes, since it is hugely popular as a garden plant. The intensely purple-pink flowers of Mezereon look stunning when they appear on bare stems, before the leaves open. A good colony of these plants grows on a protected reserve in West Suffolk but was most likely introduced; either planted by a well-meaning person or perhaps bird sown from berries.

Mezereon flowers are followed by a second colourful display, provided by its shiny berries that start off green and turn bright red. These are much favoured by birds and occasional plants that pop up around our region perhaps originate from berries that have passed through an avian gardener!

As we come into the final year of field work for the BSBI's Atlas 2020, I am reminded that there are always surprises to be found out there, as the natural world never stands still. In spring 2017, a group of us in the Norfolk Flora Group working on recording for Atlas 2020, came across a number of plants of Twin-flowered Daphne (Daphne pontica) in woodland to the West of Norwich. How these came to be here, we've no idea, but they were well-established and had clearly been present for some time. It's possible that someone planted them to provide berries for Pheasants, but it seems an unlikely choice of species for that, so perhaps they simply found their way there via the local bird population from a nearby garden. This is a new species for the county list and certainly an unexpected find!

Reflecting on Narcissus

The ancient mythology of Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection spawned the word 'narcissism' for someone who might seem to be a little two wrapped up in themselves. However, it seems that any connection with the flower, Narcissus, has never been proven and the plants may have got their name via a different root. Whatever the story, the Narcissi are plants that we now come to know as daffodils - a word that itself has a mysterious root, seemingly emerging over time from the ancient word 'Asphodelus', itself a type of Mediterranean flower.

Daffodils are the very essence of spring, reaching their glorious peak during late March and early April and seen as one of the great hopes of emergence from winter - glorious stands of yellow fill the lanes and copses as the natural world revitalises itself after the winter rest. So it seems timely that I should have just added the daffodils on the Flora of East Anglia website as we enter the beginning of March. Of course, horticultural breeding and the introduction of more than just our one native species, has meant that the first daffodils can readily be seen by the end of December, with some seeing us into early May. But those great golden sheets will always be an early April thing to me and I can't wait for them to really get going. As I look out of my window, the early varieties 'Tete-a-tete' and 'February Gold' are already doing their thing, so it's time to brush up on identification before the riot begins!

Common Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) is the only native species in the UK and is very localised in East Anglia (and perhaps not native here), but it can often be found in the better-managed village churchyards, where it naturalises more freely than many of the modern cultivars. 

Common Daffodil in all its spring glory.

Mankind seems always to need to tamper with natural beauty. Anyone who knows me will know that I generally wince at so-called double flowers that seem to completely miss the point of the beauty in simplicity - especially in cheerful spring plants such as daffodils and primroses. East Anglia has a great quantity of a very old, double variety called 'Telamonius Plenus' and also known under the name of 'Van Sion', which dates back to at least the 15th Century and is well established in the region, even on some nature reserves. 

Smaller-flowered daffodils often have a number of flowers on each stem. Varieties of Bunch-flowered Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta) come in a range of colours and are often encountered in parks and cemeteries.

And daffodils don't just come in yellow! Pheasant's-eye Daffodil (Narcissus poeticus) readily spreads to form dense colonies and puts on a staggering show in the mountains of southern Europe where it is native. Strangely, it is also known as Poet's Daffodil, which is strange as it hardly fits Wordsworth's line: .... When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils.

You can go straight to the daffodils page on Flora of East Anglia by clicking this link!

A Prelude to Spring - Blackthorn versus Cherry Plum

With spring just about around the corner, one of the great issues of the season among budding botanists is sorting out Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) from Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera). The two are both common hedgerow plants throughout much of lowland Britain and on first look are remarkably similar. The issue seems to have been further compounded by a failure by some books in the past to include Cherry Plum, so it is often off the radar so to speak when people are considering identifications.

The photos below cover the salient identification points in turn, with particular reference to spring features. Blackthorn is a native species, found commonly throughout most of the UK. It is a suckering shrub that is a dominant component of natural, successional scrub and often forms extensive stands with Hawthorn, spreading to form impenetrable thickets if left to grow naturally. Blackthorn tolerates pruning readily and is consequently a very common plant in hedgerows, both as a naturally-occurring native and where planted. The plants are strongly spiny on suckering shoots and long growths, but typically less so on flowering stems.Blackthorn fruits are known as Sloes and are famously astringent and not for the faint-hearted! Although they are well-known as a component of Sloe Gin.

Cherry Plum is a thornless, introduced species that grows as a native in south-east Europe and Asia Minor. Despite being non-native, it is abundant throughout much of lowland Britain, although more so in the south and east. It has been extensively planted for hedging but, unlike Blackthorn, it does not tend to form suckering thickets but instead will grow into a small to medium-sized tree with a good trunk if left unpruned. Cherry Plum fruits are commonly eaten, though they can be a little tart and are better if cooked. The fruits are more commonly eaten on the continent and are often known as Mirabelles (although that name is also given to a small-fruited form of Common Plum (Prunus domestica).

Precise flowering times vary across the country, becoming progressively later as one heads northward. However, Cherry Plum typically peaks about a month earlier than Blackthorn, though with both species having individuals that flower early or late and drawing out the season such that there is a little overlap in flowering times, typically in late March or early April, depending on location.

Typical roadside Blackthorn thicket in flower. Note that even short sucker-growths will produce a few flowers close to the ground (Photo: April 15th).

Slightly closer view of Blackthorn in flower. Note the dense abundance of flowers along the stems, as well as the flowers close to the ground on suckering shoots (Photo: April 18th).

A typical Cherry Plum in an untended hedgerow. When maintained as a hedge, the two species grow rather similarly, but left uncut, Cherry Plum forms a good-sized trunk with only a few suckers around the base (Photo March 14th).

Blackthorn bushes flower prolifically when at their peak in April, with the flowers densely crowding the stems on relatively short flower stalks (photo: April 18th).

A closer view of Blackthorn flowers. Compared with Cherry Plum, the flowers of this species tend to be a little smaller, slightly narrower-petalled and with more prominent stamens, but there is a certain amount of variation in these features (Photo: April 18th).

Cherry Plums are a little less floriferous than Blackthorn, with the flowers mostly borne singly and on relatively longer flower stalks, so thus being a little more spaced apart Cherry Plum flowers typically open with the first leaves (April 13th). 

The stems of Blackthorn typically have very short, downy hairs on them. They are only a little shiny (perhaps because of the hairs) and they are grey-brown or purplish-grey in colour.

The stems of Cherry Plum are distinctly green-tinged, hairless and shiny. In sunny positions, the stems may become purple above, but will usually by green on the shadier underside. Note, however, that pink-flowered cultivars have dark purple stems.

The fruits of Blackthorn are known as sloes and are remarkably astringent! They are dark blue-black in colour and covered with a whitish bloom (this bloom is also found on plums and grapes and is known as 'pruinescence'; a word taken from the genus name Prunus).

Cherry Plum fruits are larger than those of Blackthorn and are sometimes known as Mirabelles (although this name is also used for a small-fruited variety of Common Plum). The fruits may be either yellow, or dark red, with each tree only producing one or other colour. Cherry Plums have a tendency to be biannual croppers, producing a heavy crop only every other year. They typically have slightly longer stalks than sloes which can help to give them a cherry-like appearance.

Forms of Cherry Plum in cultivation often have pink flowers and dull, reddish-purple leaves. They are very commonly planted as street trees in towns and cities and have dark purple fruits. This photo shows the cultivated variety 'Pissardii' which has pink buds opening to very pale pink flowers with a slightly deeper pink centre.

The cultivated form 'Nigra' of Cherry Plum has deeper pink flowers but is generally not as common as the form 'Pissardii'.