Ragwort - Senecio jacobea

Ribwort plantain - Plantago lanceolata

Lesser Burdock - Arctium minus

Bladder Campion - Silene vulgaris

Hare's Foot Clover - Trifolium arvense

Evening primrose - Oenothera biennis

Common toadflax - Linaria vulgaris

The leaves of this plant are arranged in whorls round the stem which you might be able to make out in the background of this photo, slightly out of focus. This plant can often be found in quite rough, disturbed grassland. This plant was growing alongside a path.

Yarrow - Achillea millefolium

Yarrow is a really common plant of grasslands. The leaves look almost like green feathers. It is thought to be good at healing wounds and Achilles is said to have taken the plant with him into battle. The younger leaves are supposed to be edible when boiled. Infusions of the flower are said to help with respitory problems such as colds or allergies. Wikipedia has a great article about its various uses

Restharrow - Ononis repens

This plant used to annoy farmers by tangling up their harrows whilst they were ploughing. Hence its common name 'restharrow.' This flower is a member of the pea family and has distinctive leaves that appear to have a neat crease down their centre, almost if the leaf has been folded in half and then opened up again. The leaves have little teeth round their edge and can sometimes be covered in sticky hairs or glands. I found this flower growing in damp grassland by the side of a ditch

Yorkshire fog - Holcus lanatus

I'm back from Yorkshire! Thank goodness, it was quite chilly up there indeed! I thought i'd start with a photo of a grass for my first post back.

I never really took the time to stop and look at grasses. I certainly never considered that they have flowers. Being wind pollinated they don't need to be showy with big petals but their flowers can still be quite beautiful when examined close up. I thought posting Yorkshire fog would be apt seeing as how i've been visiting there for the past week. Yorkshire fog is one of my favourite grasses. It's quite easy to spot because its leaves are really soft and hairy and if you look at the base of the stem it usually has purple stripes or veins running vertically. They remind me of stripy pajama bottoms. The flower head also has a rather pleasant purplish tinge. It's definately going on the list of my top ten grasses of all time!

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