Day: May 11, 2020

Posted in nature

Every Day is a School Day

Posted on by BITM

No doubt due to the recent weather, I have noticed more flowers blooming earlier than their traditional start time of June. One example is the Common nipplewort (Lapsana communis).

The Common nipplewort is part of the sunflower family.

Other plants flowering at the moment are Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus),

This isn’t a relative of the Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) despite its name. It is part of the poppy rather than buttercup family.

– Three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum),

Ants spread the seeds of this wild flower.

– Red campion (Silene dioica),

A dioecious plant, male flowers bloom on separate plants to the female flowers.

– White campion (Silene latifolia),

White campion is pollinated by moths because it is night scented

– Cleavers (Galium aparine),

The flowers of Cleavers are tiny. This photograph has been enlarged so they can be seen more clearly.

– Common honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum),

I noticed the sweet scent first. This plant is beneficial for a variety of butterflies, like the White admiral (Limenitis camilla), bumblebees and moths. Birds such as Thrushes (Turdidae), Warblers (Sylvidae) and Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) also eat its berries. Plus Dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius) inhabit and feed on this plant.

– A sow thistle (Sonchus),

– A Hawkweed (Hieracium),

– Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella)

– and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).

A plant that was new to me was Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra).

Along with all the wild flowers I noticed last week, the warm weather continued to encourage lots of insects out. There were more Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) and Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) butterflies along with bumblebees.

I also saw a Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) at the allotment, amongst the long grass.

This moth flies flies during the day as well as at night time.

The most interesting insect I observed last week was a Pine ladybird (Exochomus qadripustulatus).

I have never seen this species of ladybird before. It dropped onto my sunglasses as I worked. Due to its small size (3mm in length), to begin with I thought it was a bit of dirt. As the name suggests, this beetle inhabits Pine (Pinus) trees. However they can also be found around other trees and shrubs especially Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna).