We are experiencing a severe drought and an extraordinary heatwave. The temperature today and yesterday in the southern England has been touching 40℃. I have experienced this kind of blistering sun in California but never before in the UK.

 Yet wild plants can take it. This patch of Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) on the allotment is never watered. Indeed P. dysenterica arrived on the allotment of its own accord and has flourished. Moreover it is a plant usually associated with damp ground -like ditches and marshes- whereas the soil on the allotment drains and dries rapidly. In fact such species can be surprisingly drought tolerant. Boggy ground dries out from time to time and plants play the long game.

 Climate change is generating extremes on a regular basis. I think that many of the plants best adapted to survive will be our native and naturalised wildflowers. They have known a lot of weather in the span of their existence.

 NB Fleabane is not an edible and I keep it on the allotment because I like it. Having said that it could justifiably be used as a companion plant in a natural gardening approach. It may perhaps be the bane of fleas, I haven't put that to the test. Certainly it has a pungency which is known to repel some insects.