Monday 26 March 2012

Field notes 3 - the case for the defence

Last year, the surprise appearance of a Bee Orchid in the lawn of Tense Towers caused quite a stir. Sadly, despite the application of a good coat of looking at, there's not a roseate to be seen this Spring.

So there's no use for Fort Orchid, this time around.

No, this time there's a whole border of wildflower seed to worry about. A veritable magnet for dust-bathing Sparrows, cat scat and the feathered vacuum cleaners that are Wood Pigeons. This year the defence architect had to think big. How big?

Castle Cornflower big.


Obviously, apart from 6 square metres of galvanised wire, there's not much to see at the moment. However I did spend a happy hour, sifting through the seed mix to identify the 9 species of annual flowers it contained.

Agrostemma githago, Corn Cockle
Anthemis arvensis, Corn Chamomile
Bupleurum rotundifolium, Thorow-wax
Centaurea cyanus, Cornflower
Glebionis segetum, Corn Marigold
Myosotis arvensis, Field Forget-me-not
Papaver rhoeas, Common Poppy
Ranunculus arvensis, Corn Buttercup
Silene noctiflora, Night-flowering Catchfly

3 comments:

holdingmoments said...

Blimey, you've got some patience working your way through them seeds to identify them.

I was told last year, by a very nice lady at the Parks Trust, after finding some at Caldecotte Lake, that Bee Orchids don't necessarily come up in the same place each year. Shame. :-(

Imperfect and Tense said...

A very nice and absolutely correct lady, I would say!

Not patience exactly, Keith. There were a few expletives along the way. Particularly when I lost one of the poppy seeds as I went to photograph them :o)

Spadger said...

Good spotting and counting - good job it wasn't like an MFI or Ikea self assembly set! You'd have been well miffed if a seed type was missing from the set.