Each flower of an Ox-Eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) is many i.e. composite. At the centre is the multitude of yellow flowers (disc floret) and the surrounding petals are flowers too (ray floret).

 

 Happy to say a colony of Echium wildprettii is becoming established in South London- in the vicinity of my front garden. Known as the 'The Tower of Jewels' the species hails from the Canary Islands. They made their way to this spot via a seedling given to me by one of the gardeners at the South London Botanical Institute. 

 Giant Echiums are triennial and that specimen flowered in 2020 shedding copious seed; its progeny have been appearing over the past few years. Every 'jewel' is a flower and the tower pulsates with bees...

 

 Hawthorn, sometimes called The May Tree. Much planted in field hedgerows of old but will grow from a shrub to a fully fledged tree left to its own devices. I read an interesting comment that it is the only plant in the UK to be named after the month it flowers. That seems surprising but I'm struggling to think of another? Hawthorn is rich in lore and legend as befits a species that can live up to 400 years. 

 

 A stand of (probably) Russian Comfrey judging by its pinkish/port wine flowers though that ID is notional. Symphytum x uplandicum is a hybrid of S. officinale and S. asperum widely naturalised having been introduced to the UK as a crop for fodder, fertiliser etc. It cross pollinates with native S. officinale so interbreeding is infinitely mutable courtesy of bumblebees. 

Greater Stichwort

Red Campion

Star of Bethlehem

 

 The wildwood is gone -the primeval forest that covered much of this island- but some species of the forest floor remain. In a damp tree-lined dell near Hitchin there are thousands of Ramsons aka Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum). 

 This colony would have flourished under the canopy of the wildwood. And persisted as our ancient ancestors created a landscape of woodlands and clearings. The dell is now surrounded by large arable fields where no Ramson could grow. Nonetheless the pungent smell of garlic fills the air of the dell as it would have done in the wildwood. 

 

 The presence of Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) is an indicator of ancient woodland. I made my annual pilgrimage to look for tiny Toothworts on the edge of Wain Wood. Not one did I find but there was more Archangel than usual.