St David's Day Plant Hunt (NYDPH Revisted)

I am not Welsh - one-eighth by marriage only, so that does not count.   Nevertheless I celebrated St David's Day  by looking for plants in flower.   I followed for comparison the route I took on the plant hunt on New Year's Day: through the village, past the garden allotments, over 2 fields of pasture, an arable field, back down a lane and through another part of the village.  It is never very productive at the best of times but gives a representation of the flora of the village and the immediate countryside.  The views are pleasant.

Pasture

Arable

January and February have been cold and for example at the end of February I tried the moth trap on three evenings but caught nothing.  Today, with the temperature at around 10℃, was a little more Spring-like.  I found a very modest 17 plants in flower, the village being the most productive with weeds, naturalised plants and garden escapes.   The pasture had nothing unsurprisingly despite the presence of a marsh fed by a spring emerging from limestone further up.

Hazel

Hazel

Lesser Celandine

 Here is a comparison of the plants in flower on the 2 days.

		01/03/2017	02/01/2017
Pineapple-weed	Matricaria discoidea		NYD
Ivy	Hedera helix		NYD
Wood Avens	Geum urbanum		NYD
Shepherd's- Purse	Capsella bursa-pastoris	SDD	NYD
Groundsel	Senecio vulgaris	SDD	NYD
Read Dead-nettle	Lamium purpureum	SDD	NYD
Dandelion	Taraxcum agg.	SDD	NYD
Hazel	Corylus avellana	SDD
Common Chickweed	Stellaria media	SDD
Annual Meadow Grass	Poa annua	SDD
Hairy Bittercress	Cardamine hirsuta	SDD
Daisy	Bellis perennis	SDD
Snowdrop	Galanthus nivalis	SDD
Common Field-speedwell	Veronica persica	SDD
Ivy-leaved Speedwell	Veronica hederifolia	SDD
Petty Spurge	Euphorbia peplus	SDD
Lesser Celandine	Ranunculus ficaria	SDD
Primrose	Primula vulgaris	SDD
White Dead Nettle	Lamium album	SDD
Greater Periwinkle	Vinca major	SDD
Total		17	7

I saw my first bee of the year, a queen White-tailed Bumblebee.

I dallied a little looking at the hazel flowers - the female and male flowers are on the same bush but are separate.   Pollination is effected by the wind, so I looked to see if there was any difference in the distribution of female flowers - top to bottom - one might expect more at lower levels but  I could not see any. difference.

Hazel flower (female)

The next milestone is May 1 (May Day) so another chance to see progress of plants flowering.   Beyond that and I will probably have given up because grasses will be in flower and I find them far too challenging.