Town hall clock

Moschatel is a very prompt flower, befitting its common name of Town Hall Clock. Last year and the year before, it flowered at the end of March along with shining cranesbill, greater stitchwort and bluebells. This year it is here again for Easter, but the other flowers are way behind because of the persistent cold…

December flowers

Meadowsweet and wild angelica, the epitome of summer, are flowering along Wrangaton Road, with the meadowsweet just coming into bud. Still flowering after the summer are red campion, white deadnettle, hogweed and wood sage. Winter heliotrope, the first primroses, lesser periwinkle and new shoots of dog’s mercury are more seasonal. Holly on the moor by Ludbrook

Close up

At a first glance, you might think plants were all dying back now but looking closely there are many flowers still among the seed-heads. Here are some from the verge between Ivybridge station and Bittaford.

April sunshine

The burst of sunshine over the weekend has brought out some new flowers along Bittaford Road, including the first delicate lady’s smock. There was a clump of greater chickweed. It was hard to do it justice with my phone camera but you can see the 10 stamens – each purple blob is a pair – that distinguish it…

Elsewhere in April

Elsewhere in the past couple of weeks, some interesting tiny coastal plants under the viaduct in Bittaford: common scurvygrass (heart-shaped leaves, distinctive spherical seed pods; once used by sailors to prevent scurvy) and Danish scurvygrass (ivy-shaped leaves) come inland where roads are salted. My phone wasn’t quite up to photography on this miniature scale. Thale cress was growing in…