Today, you join me on an early evening walk in one of my local woodlands, where we will look at some of the summer wildflowers you can find in woodlands right now.
The day has been hot and humid, but the early evening in the woods is cooler and more pleasant. Although the sun is still shining bright, the light is filtered through the leaves, creating a dappled shade. While some plants may struggle with the reduced light, others have adapted well to the summer woodland environment.
The first plant I can see as we enter the woodland edge is one many of you will know. It’s called Herb Robert and is part of the Geranium family.
Herb Robert, a type of crane’s-bill, blooms from May to September and is commonly found in various forest habitats such as woodland and hedgerows. It prefers shady and rocky areas. Its delicate pink flowers consist of five petals, while the plant’s lobed leaves and thin, hairy reddish stems are distinct features. According to folklore, Herb Robert is associated with the mischievous hobgoblin Robin Goodfellow.
The Herb Robert plant features five small pink petals that are star-shaped, with reddish stems. As a low-growing biennial, it has dark green fern-shaped leaves that are palmate, originating from a single point.
As with many native plants, it has several local or regional names, such as red robin, death comes quickly, and Stinking Bob. That last name refers to the smell if you crush a leaf-like burning rubber. Not very pleasant.
Herb Robert has been a popular natural remedy for treating stomach upsets and nosebleeds due to its antiseptic properties. Moreover, the crushed leaves of the plant serve as an efficient insect repellent when applied on the skin. Additionally, some individuals brew herbal tea using the leaves which are believed to promote healthy digestion and bowel movements.
It is a food plant for wildlife and a good nectar source for many invertebrates, including bees, hoverflies and the barred carpet moth.
Herb-robert gained its name in folklore from an ancient association with Robin Goodfellow, a house goblin known as Puck. Other stories suggest that it took its name from an 11th-century monk who cured many people using the plant. It is claimed that Herb Robert brings good luck and fertility to those who wear a small daisy chain-style necklace or bracelet.
Common Vetch
Just over to my right, you will see a plant scrambling through the scrub, look closer and you will see the plant has tendrils that hook onto other plants to climb, just like those on sweet peas or garden peas that you may grow in your garden, and that’s because it is a member of the pea or legumes family. This plant is called Common Vetch.
Common Vetch flowers from May to September can be found throughout the woodland and grass and meadowland. It has beautiful, dainty pink to purple flowers that can be single or in pairs. Its leaves are like folded ovals that sit opposite one another along the stems.
As a pea family (legumes) member, Common vetch makes its nitrates, a nutrient essential for healthy plant growth. This makes it very useful as a soil-fertilising plant and is often used as livestock fodder. Modern Archaeologists have found evidence that ancient civilisations ate common vetch in the same we eat cultivated peas and pea shoots today.
There is another climbing plant coming through this thicket and scrub, and it is one of my favourites for its looks but also has a beautiful smell. One sniff and you instantly know that is
HONEYSUCKLE
Also known as woodbine. You can see its thin vine-like stems coming up through the other plants and then the beautiful trumpet-like flower. This one has yellow-orange flowers that are often tinged with striking pink or even red flush. The leaves are dark green and oval and have no stalks, so they are very close to the vine-like stem. They are in pairs and arranged opposite each other. Honeysuckle will flower from May to September.
Honeysuckle is valuable to wildlife, with its sweet, heady fragrance filling the air on warm summer evenings. It supports several species, many of which are rare. Butterflies, such as the white admiral, which is in decline, rely specifically on Honeysuckle and is also prized by bumblebees.
Pollinating moths are attracted to the sweet scent of Honeysuckle at night when it is strongest, and birds, including thrushes, warblers and bullfinches, eat the berries when they ripen in late summer and autumn.
Dormice also rely on Honeysuckle for both shelter and food. They use honeysuckle bark to build nests for their young in summer but also eat the sweet, nectar-rich flowers as a source of energy.
The honeysuckle plant has been widely used in traditional medicine to treat various health conditions such as urinary disorders, headaches, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. In addition, it has been used to promote sweating, as a laxative, to counteract poisoning, and even as a form of birth control. Furthermore, honeysuckle is commonly applied topically to alleviate inflammation, itching, and to serve as an antibacterial agent. However, it is important to note that the berries produced by the plant during autumn are toxic and should be avoided.
In Scotland, Honeysuckle was made into walking sticks popular with Scottish music hall performers. The Honeysuckle would entwine around a thin branch causing the branches to become twisted.
In folklore, it was believed that if Honeysuckle grew around a home’s entrance, it would bring good luck and stop any evil spirits from entering the home. It was also considered a potent symbol of fidelity, and our Victorian ancestors often banned young women from bringing Honeysuckle into the house because they believed the strong smell would make them have sensual dreams!
If we take the path to the right and head towards the stream that feeds the old millpond, we will see a change in the type of plants we can see
That frothy flowered plant that is densely running along the stream bank is
MEADOWSWEET
Strangely, it is also known as bittersweet. The flowers are sometimes a creamy white and form large clusters known as cymes. Each flowerhead is up to 10mm in diameter, and its long stamen gives the plants an almost fuzzy appearance.
Sweet by name, sweet by nature. Meadowsweet might not be to everyone’s taste, but you’re unlikely to mistake the sickly sweet and frothy flower in damp woodland and bubbling out of damp ditches. Meadowsweet flowers from June to September. Its leaves are compound, Dark green on the top and greyish below. They are deeply veined and doubly serrated or toothed along both edges. The leaves are arranged on alternate sides of the stem.
There are a lot of similar white-flowered plants to be found in the woodland in the summer that are distinct, such as the related dropwort that has straight fruits – whereas Meadowsweet has twisted, spiral-like fruits.
Meadowsweet has been used in traditional medicine as a pain killer as the plant contains compounds similar to aspirin. It was steeped in water to make a pain-relieving tea, particularly for headaches and general aches and pains.
Meadowsweet is edible and can be used for flavouring drinks similar to elderflowers. It was also valued for its lasting fragrance; the dried flowers would be scattered on floors in the home to make it smell nice. Back in Anglo-Saxon times, Meadowsweet was used to flavour mead.
Meadowsweet is very valuable to wildlife, particularly moths, such as the emperor moth, grey pug, Hebrew character, lime-speck pug, mottled beauty, and the satellite.
Over here are a few stands of another one of my favourite wildflowers the
RED CAMPION
Is a medium to tall perennial plant with a downy stem. The flowers are striking and beautiful pink-red in colour with five petals from a purple-brown calyx or protective sheath that flower from May to September. Its leaves are hairy and grow in opposite pairs. Red campion is dioecious, meaning the male and female flowers grow on separate plants.
Red Campion is a significant marker of ancient woodland and has various local or regional names, such as adder’s flower, Robin Hood, and cuckoo flower. Similar to many indigenous plants, it was also utilised in traditional medicine to cure venomous snake bites.
Red campion is essential for pollinating insects, including bees, butterflies and hoverflies that will all be seen regularly on the pink flowers. With such a stunning flower, Red Campion features in several poems, including Summer Woods by Mary Howitt. Red campion’s genus name, Silene, is derived from the Greek word ‘sialon’, which means saliva, which refers to the gummy substance the plant secretes on the stems.
Folklore tells us that red campion flowers will guard the bees’ honey stores and protect the fairies from being discovered by humans.
Now, let’s take a look over here at what, from a distance, looks like some sheep’s wool hanging off the scrubby hedgerow. It’s not, of course. It is
Old Man’s beard
Old Man’s Beard also known as Travellers’ Joy, is a plant that grows in the scrub and shrub layers and can reach heights of over 10 meters. It may surprise you that it is a clematis similar to the well-known garden climbing flowers. If you have garden clematis, you will understand the speed and vigour that plants in this family can grow and how thick and woody their stems become. Clematis are the only Ranunculus or Buttercup family members developing woody stems.
The flower structure is unusual. All Clematis plants, including your garden plants, don’t have petals. The petal-like arrangements are, in fact, sepals. Most Clematis have four sepals, but Old Man’s Beard has many flowers, maybe hundreds, which are soft white. They have a slightly sweet almond scent.
Old Man’s beard only flowers in August and September and then puts its energy into developing seeds known as achenes – an achene is a one-seeded fruit that retains part of the flower. The name Old Man’s Beard derives from the long, silky hairs from the grey tufted balls, a common site in woodlands and hedgerows from early autumn. They are an essential part of the plant’s seed dispersal.
Old Man’s Beard is a regular site in the South East of England, but less so the further north you travel. Folklore suggests that Old Man’s beard is the Devil’s work because of its ability to out-compete other plants by swamping them, leading to one of its other names, ‘ devils cut’. Near the coast, it was used as a wound cord to make the bottoms of crab pots; locally, it was used to bind sheaves of corn and is said to stop rats from knawing through the sheaves. I’m told it was used as a cigarette substitute.
In France, the plant is known as ‘herbe aux gueux’, which means the beggar’s or rascal’s herb. This refers to its use to irritate the beggar’s skin to give it a sore and ulcerated look, hoping to solicit a sympathetic donation from people in the village or town.
Now let’s take a closer look at a plant that we have all walked past many times today, and so far, we have taken little notice of it, but that is our mistake because the Bramble or Blackberry is a great plant. Let me tell you why:
Bramble or Blackberry
The Bramble is a versatile plant that is indigenous to numerous habitats, ranging from woodlands to hedgerows, heaths, dunes, and even gardens and town centers. This suggests that it is an early coloniser that can adapt to various growing conditions. Although it is a thriving plant, it is not typically found in native pine woodlands.
The bramble forms an underground, perennial rootstock that throws up new shoots in the Spring. In the first year, growth is vigorous and vegetative, and anyone who has a garden or has taken on a new allotment will know that if the tip of the shoot meets the soil, it may develop roots and form a new plant.
In the second year, lateral shoots develop, which bear the flowers. The leaves on these lateral shoots are somewhat smaller. The flowers form in late Spring or early summer and are white or pale pink, and the blackberry develops from these flowers. I didn’t say fruit because the blackberry is not a berry. Each tiny juicy part of blackberry is individual and known as a drupelet. Each drupelet has a fleshy outer part surrounding a stone or seed.
Some brambles produce fruit and seed without fertilisation, although the transfer of pollen to the stigmas of the flowers may be required to stimulate fruit and seed formation. This form of reproduction is neither sexual nor asexual but is known as apomixis. Brambles and dandelions both make use of this method.
Blackberries have been part of the human diet for centuries The women found buried in bogs in Denmark dating to around 500 BC were found to have blackberries in their stomachs.
Blackberries are a wild superfood and worth collecting and eating. Blackberries are rich in calcium, great for your teeth and bones and can regulate blood clots and muscle contractions. They are also packed with vitamin C and Vitamin K, fibre, and vitamins and minerals. In short, they are healthy for you.
No surprise then that they are great for wildlife as well. Dormice eat their flowers and fruit and use the prickly stems for refuge and to keep predators away. The leaves are an excellent food source for deer; in Spring, the flowers feed many pollinators and other insects, whilst, in autumn, the berries provide a vital harvest for many birds but also mammals such as Badgers, foxes, hedgehogs and most rodents.
Look at this lovely plant; most people like it until I tell them its name. This is
Enchanters Nightshade
But let’s clear this up straight away. This plant is not a member of the poisonous nor even a member of the nightshade family.
The plant is said to have got its name from enchantress Circe of Greek mythology, and perhaps it was one of the herbs she was thought to have put into her potion to turn Odysseus’s shipmates into pigs in Homer’s epic poem. Enchanter’s nightshade, or Circaea lutetiana, is part of the willowherb family (Onagraceae).
The delicate white flowers can be seen from June and August. The petals have ‘cuts’ or notches, which partly divide them. The sepals and stems of the plant are hairy. Each flower ‘sits’ on the end of a stalk, and many flowers – collectively termed the inflorescence – are gathered at the top of the plant. The fruits that form have small bristles that help them cling to clothes or an animal’s fur. The leaves are sometimes described as downy or soft. They are broad at the base but taper towards the tip.
Surprisingly, there is very little related folklore with a name like Enchanters Nightshade. It was said to be used by witches for shape-shifting and hexing, and this is backed up by its local or regional names such as Witches Grass, Great Witch herb, Wood magic herb, and St Stephen’s wort. Although not poisonous, the plant is not edible and appears to have no specific medicinal benefits.
Over here is another scrambling climbing point I would like to tell you more about. This one is known as a
DOG ROSE
In my opinion, the pale pink flowers of the dog rose make it the most beautiful among all roses. It uses its curved spines to cling onto other shrubs and grow.
Dog rose flowers are large and white or pale pink flowers with white centres, and if you go closer, you will just get a hint of that fabulous rose scent. Of course, like most roses, the stem has firmly hooked or curved prickles that help the plant grip as it scrambles through other plants or up trees. With support, this will climb up to around 10 meters. The leaves are on alternate stem sides and divided into 2–3 pairs of toothed leaflets. In autumn, the Dog Rose will produce striking red hips that form in small clusters. Each hip contains many hairy seeds.
The wild rose has a long history of medicinal use. The rose hips are rich in vitamin C and are commonly used to make herbal teas, syrups, and supplements. Rose hip extracts boost the immune system, improve digestion, and provide anti-inflammatory benefits. They are also used in skin care products for their antioxidant properties and ability to promote skin health.
Rose hips have culinary applications as well. They are made into jams, jellies, sauces, and beverages. Rose hip tea is known for its tart and fruity flavour. It is a rich source of antioxidants and can be enjoyed for its taste and potential health benefits.
The petals of the wild rose can be used to create natural dyes, including shades of pink, red, and purple. These dyes are used to colour fabrics, yarns, and other raw materials. The thorny branches of the wild rose can be used in traditional crafts, such as basket weaving.
The wild rose provides valuable habitat and food for wildlife, its hips being a food source for birds such as blackbirds, redwings and waxwings. Whilst the dense thickets of the shrub offer shelter and nesting sites for birds and small animals.
Once again, the local or regional names are a clue to the folklore of how the plant got its name Dog Rose, dogberry and witches briar. The first is that its hips were a cure if you were bitten by a rabid dog, whilst another tale suggests it comes from the word ‘dag’ that refers to the Sharpe spines on the stems.
Now here’s a welcoming site for anyone who enjoys a beer after a nice walk in the woods
Wild Hops
Hops are native to the UK and can be found everywhere except the northern parts of Scotland. They have green-yellow flowers from July through to September. The Male flowers grow in a loose branching group, whereas female flowers are catkins, shaped like cones. The male and female flowers grow on different plants.
The leaves are rough to the touch and have toothed margins, and the female flowers develop into cone-shaped fruit, green before turning brown once they have ripened. Hops have a distinctive scent, a rather heady mix of yeast, apples and garlic. Hop flowers have a rich nectar that is important to many insects, but its main benefit to wildlife is the dense vines create a small microclimate that is a safe and valuable refuge for insects and nesting or roosting birds.
Of course, hops are well known for being a bittering agent and natural preservative for beer, but they also have some excellent medicinal benefits. Hops are a great aid for those who cannot sleep. It is a relaxing, sedative herb and is particularly effective when combined with valerian. Hop tea can be taken before bed, but you can also make herb sachets or a hop pillow using hop flowers.
Hops can also help relieve stress or anxiety and have been known to help menstruating and menopausal women by reducing hot flushes and helping to calm the body. Although because of its phytoestrogens, hops should not be taken by pregnant women or young children.
Hops have natural antiviral, antibacterial, antimicrobial, and antibiotic properties that help boost our immune systems and are said to aid digestion if taken before a meal.
Hops have a place in folklore as well. Along with the animals who are supposed to receive the gift of speech late on Christmas Eve, the hop is supposed to turn green on the same night. Hops are also known as the wolf of the woods.
Now there is a fascinating plant to spot, hidden away down in the low layer near the hedge; please don’t touch that; is
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE
The Deadly Nightshade plant boasts charming bell-shaped flowers in shades of purple and green, perched on delicate, elongated stems. Its leaves are oval-shaped with pointed tips and smooth edges, growing in an alternate pattern. However, it’s important to note that this plant is also highly toxic.
In Autumn, Deadly Nightshade produces shiny black berries with five sepals visible where the fruit attaches to the plant. This is how many of us would recognise the plant. Of course, the berries are also highly poisonous. Some birds can eat the berries of deadly nightshade, although most prefer to eat the berries of other plant species. The berries are poisonous to most mammals but are eaten by rabbits and even cows.
Deadly Nightshade features in the original Macbeth, where it’s thought to have been used to poison Duncan’s troops. In art and poetry, it represents danger and betrayal. The local or regional names provide us with further clues; Devil’s berries, Devil’s cherries, Devil’s herb, Devil’s rhubarb, and satan’s cherries. Folklore has it that Deadly Nightshade was the property of the Devil and that anyone who ate the berries was punished for eating his fruit.
Although this plant does not have any culinary applications, it has gained considerable attention in the medical field due to its potential benefits. Historically, it has been used to alleviate abdominal discomfort and nausea caused by motion sickness. Additionally, modern eye surgeons use a highly purified form of this plant to expand the pupil during certain procedures.
We are now heading towards our end point for today, but I have spotted a relatively common plant that is fascinating with an intriguing name.
This is
Lords and Ladies
This plant undergoes three distinct phases in its annual cycle, making it a fascinating species to observe. During early spring, it can often be found growing alongside wild garlic or Ransomes, and in its initial stages, it may bear a significant resemblance to these plants.
It’s an early flowering plant in woodlands and will have tiny yellow base flowers in April and May before sending up a shoot with a single pale green sheath surrounding a purple or yellow ‘spadix’, a spike of tiny flowers on a fleshy stem. This spadix eventually produces an upright stalk of bright red berries that is conspicuous among the leaf litter.
Lords and Ladies is a widespread plant throughout the UK, apart from the northern areas of Scotland. It isn’t poisonous, as many believe, probably due to the red berries. Still, it contains oxalate crystals that are very sharp and can penetrate and irritate skin for a long time, and if consumed, it can cause the throat to shrink and possibly close.
Traditionally associated with Beltane, our modern May Day celebrations, the druids would have sex in the fields to ensure the land’s fertility, and, unsurprisingly, it was a popular plant. But the Victorians denounced it as devilish, lewd, and symbolic of unbridled sin.
There are some medicinal uses for Lords and ladies, but I would suggest you are better to avoid it. It was used to induce sweating and vomiting and to treat internal parasites. There are also stories of it being used to treat painful throat conditions and rheumatism.
Did you know that the root of Lords and Ladies was once used to make a drink called Saloop? It was quite popular among workers before tea or coffee became affordable. The root was used as a thickener when arrowroot powder was not available. However, it’s important to note that the root requires careful and thorough processing. I would advise against consuming Lords and Ladies as it can be dangerous to your health.
And that brings us to the end of our Summer wildflower woodland walk for today.