Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa

I've decided to post a few of my old photographs that i didn't manage to post whilst they were in flower. Blackthorn flowering period has long since gone - in fact i've seen many ripe sloe fruits ready to be picked which seems early to me - but i'm not complaining. Bring on the sloe gin!

Dodder - Cuscuta epithymum

This is a parasitic plant that grows on plants such as heather and clover. It looks like red string trailing across the ground. It's seen here growing on clover at a chalk grassland site but i've seen it before on heathlands too.

Autumn Lady's Tresses - Spiranthes spiralis

Another beautiful orchid. It's so tiny i almost didn't see it amongst the grasses but when you learn what to look for they seem to be everywhere

Oxeye daisy - Leucanthemum vulgare

Bladder Campion - Silene vulgaris

Enchanter's Nightshade - Circaea lutetiana

Yet again I couldn't get a very good snap of this, the flowers are tiny and tricky to photograph without shaking all over the place and i was in a bit of a rush as i was meant to be carrying out a plant survey. It's a really pretty little plant though. The colour is a little hard to define, it's such a pale purple that it's almost white. It has those little fruits with hooked bristles that always end up getting stuck on your clothes, hair and down your boots.

Squinancywort - Asperula cynanchica

This flower has got to have one of the best common names. I love the way the name is so interesting and yet the flower itself is small and tiny and the plant is almost invisible when it isn't flowering. I've never seen the plant in flower before so it was a nice surprise to see it blooming all over the place, the tiny pale pink flowers are very beautiful close up. The plant itself is a bedstraw, which means that it has little spindly leaves arranged in whorls around the stem and four petals to the flower.

Bramble - Rubus fruticosus

Ah the bramble, how British! Apparantly bramble isn't just one species but there are over 200 different bramble species that only real specialists can tell apart. All these species are lumped together under Rubus fruticosus agg. so that us non-specialists can record it where we see it.

Elder - Sambucus nigra

Elder tree growing in my back garden. I love the smell that these flowers give off. Everywhere i go there seems to be elder bursting into flower. Apparanly rabbits hate this plant so you can often find it growing close to their warrens.

I'm tempted to try and pick some elder and make some cordial out of it but i'm worried it would be too polluted coming from a city garden. Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall had a recipe in last week's guardian showing you how to make battered elderflowers... sounds a bit greasy to me! Find the recipe here: Guardian

Dropwort - Filipendula vulgaris

I love the contrast between the pink tips of the flower buds and the white petals

White Clover - Trifolium repens

Found growing in an improved pasture field

Hedge Garlic

Not a very good photo i'm afraid, the flower is out of focus.

Cow Parsley

Found near a field in Stanmer Park

Daisy - Bellis perennis

The daisy has got to be one of the easiest to recognise flowers there is. And therefore probably quite under-apprecitated. I think it's probably one of the first flowers i ever learnt to identify when i was a little girl, making daisy chains on the school playing fields

White Dead Nettle