Common Name

Botanical Name

Habitat - Hedgerows and Verges

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FLOWER COLOUR Comparison Page,
space,
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NOTE Gallery
...Blue Note
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...Orange Note
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...Pink H-Z Note
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...Red Note
...White A-D Note
...White E-P Note
...White Q-Z Note
...Yellow A-G Note
...Yellow H-Z Note
...Shrub/Tree Note

Number of Petals List:-
Without Petals. Other plants
without flowers.
1 Petal or
Composite of
many 1 Petal Flowers as Disc
or Ray Floret .
2 Petals.
3 Petals.
4 Petals.
5 Petals.
6 Petals.
Over 6 Petals.

BLUE WILD FLOWER GALLERY
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Lists of:-

Edible Plant Parts.

Flower Legend.

Food for
Butterfly/Moth.

Flowering plants of Chalk and Limestone Page 1
Page 2

Flowering plants of Acid Soil
Page 1

Pollinator.

Poisonous Parts.

Scented Flower, Foliage, Root.

Story of their Common Names.

Use for Flowering Plants

Use for Non-Flowering Plants

SEED COLOUR
Seed 1
Seed 2

BLUE WILD FLOWER GALLERY
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Habitat Lists:-

Approaching the
Coast (Coastal).

Broad-leaved
Woods.

Grassland - Acid, Neutral, Chalk.

Heaths and Moors.

Hedgerows and Verges.

Lakes, Canals and Rivers.

Marshes, Fens,
Bogs.

Old Buildings and Walls.

Pinewoods.

River Banks and
other Freshwater Margins.

Saltmarshes.

Sandy Shores and Dunes.

Shingle Beaches, Rocks and
Cliff Tops.

Other.
 

WILD FLOWER GALLERY
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Site Map of pages with content (o)

Introduction

Poisonous Plants

INDEX LINK TO WILDFLOWER PLANT DESCRIPTION PAGE
a-h
i-p
q-z


FLOWER COLOUR
(o)Blue
(o)Brown
(o)Cream
(o)Green
(o)Mauve
(o)Multi-Coloured
Orange
(o)Pink 1
(o)Pink 2
(o)Purple
(o)Red
(o)White1
(o)White2
(o)White3
(o)Yelow1
(o)Yelow2
(o)Shrub or Small Tree

SEED COLOUR
(o)Seed 1
(o)Seed 2

BED PICTURES
(o)Bed

HABITAT TABLES
Flowers in
Acid Soil
Flowers in
Chalk Soil
Flowers in
Marine Soil
Flowers in
Neutral Soil
Ferns
Grasses
Rushes
Sedges

WILDFLOWER INDEX
Botanical Name
Common Name

See Explanation of Structure of this Website with User Guidelines to aid your use of this website.

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 1

(o)Adder's Tongue
Amaranth
(o)Arrow-Grass
(o)Arum
(o)Balsam
Bamboo
(o)Barberry
(o)Bedstraw
(o)Beech
(o)Bellflower
(o)Bindweed
(o)Birch
(o)Birds-Nest
(o)Birthwort
(o)Bogbean
(o)Bog Myrtle
(o)Borage
(o)Box
(o)Broomrape
(o)Buckthorn
(o)Buddleia
(o)Bur-reed
(o)Buttercup
(o)Butterwort
(o)Cornel (Dogwood)
(o)Crowberry
(o)Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
(o)Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2
Cypress
(o)Daffodil
(o)Daisy
(o)Daisy Cudweeds
(o)Daisy Chamomiles
(o)Daisy Thistle
(o)Daisy Catsears (o)Daisy Hawkweeds
(o)Daisy Hawksbeards
(o)Daphne
(o)Diapensia
(o)Dock Bistorts
(o)Dock Sorrels

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 2

(o)Clubmoss
(o)Duckweed
(o)Eel-Grass
(o)Elm
(o)Filmy Fern
(o)Horsetail
(o)Polypody
Quillwort
(o)Royal Fern
(o)Figwort - Mulleins
(o)Figwort - Speedwells
(o)Flax
(o)Flowering-Rush
(o)Frog-bit
(o)Fumitory
(o)Gentian
(o)Geranium
(o)Glassworts
(o)Gooseberry
(o)Goosefoot
(o)Grass 1
(o)Grass 2
(o)Grass 3
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 1
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 2
(o)Grass Soft Bromes 3 (o)Hazel
(o)Heath
(o)Hemp
(o)Herb-Paris
(o)Holly
(o)Honeysuckle
(o)Horned-Pondweed
(o)Hornwort
(o)Iris
(o)Ivy
(o)Jacobs Ladder
(o)Lily
(o)Lily Garlic
(o)Lime
(o)Lobelia
(o)Loosestrife
(o)Mallow
(o)Maple
(o)Mares-tail
(o)Marsh Pennywort
(o)Melon (Gourd/Cucumber)
 

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 3

(o)Mesem-bryanthemum
(o)Mignonette
(o)Milkwort
(o)Mistletoe
(o)Moschatel
Naiad
(o)Nettle
(o)Nightshade
(o)Oleaster
(o)Olive
(o)Orchid 1
(o)Orchid 2
(o)Orchid 3
(o)Orchid 4
(o)Parnassus-Grass
(o)Peaflower
(o)Peaflower Clover 1
(o)Peaflower Clover 2
(o)Peaflower Clover 3
(o)Peaflower Vetches/Peas
Peony
(o)Periwinkle
Pillwort
Pine
(o)Pink 1
(o)Pink 2
Pipewort
(o)Pitcher-Plant
(o)Plantain
(o)Pondweed
(o)Poppy
(o)Primrose
(o)Purslane
Rannock Rush
(o)Reedmace
(o)Rockrose
(o)Rose 1
(o)Rose 2
(o)Rose 3
(o)Rose 4
(o)Rush
(o)Rush Woodrushes
(o)Saint Johns Wort
Saltmarsh Grasses
(o)Sandalwood
(o)Saxifrage
 

WILD FLOWER FAMILY
PAGE MENU 4

Seaheath
(o)Sea Lavender
(o)Sedge Rush-like
(o)Sedges Carex 1
(o)Sedges Carex 2
(o)Sedges Carex 3
(o)Sedges Carex 4
(o)Spindle-Tree
(o)Spurge
(o)Stonecrop
(o)Sundew
(o)Tamarisk
Tassel Pondweed
(o)Teasel
(o)Thyme 1
(o)Thyme 2
(o)Umbellifer 1
(o)Umbellifer 2
(o)Valerian
(o)Verbena
(o)Violet
(o)Water Fern
(o)Waterlily
(o)Water Milfoil
(o)Water Plantain
(o)Water Starwort
Waterwort
(o)Willow
(o)Willow-Herb
(o)Wintergreen
(o)Wood-Sorrel
(o)Yam
(o)Yew

See current Wildflower Common Name Index link Table for more wildflower of the UK common names together with their names in languages from America, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

See current Wildflower Botanical Name Index link table for wildflower of the United Kingdom (Great Britain) botanical names.

After clicking on the WILD FLOWER Common Name INDEX link to Wildflower Family Page; locate that Common name on that Wildflower Family Page, then

Click on Underlined Text in:-

Common Name to view that Plant Description Page
Botanical Name to link to Plant or Seed Supplier
Flowering Months to view photos
Habitat to view further Natural Habitat details and Botanical Society of the British Isles Distribution Map
 

Common Name

Botanical Name

Habitat - Hedgerows and Verges

Bird Cherry

Blackberry

Black Bryony

Blackthorn

Corn Buttercup and
Corn Crowfoot

Corn Buttercup,
Corn Crowfoot is
Ranunculus arvensis

ranunculus arvensis. By Abrahami, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup family

Visited by small flies.
Long established, as a cornfield weed especially on calcareous soils.

An annual of arable land on loams, sands, clays and chalk. The seeds are long-lived, and plants sometimes reappear on disturbed waste ground, or in gardens or new roadside verges on former arable land.

Cow Parsley

Cow Parsley , Wild Chervil is
Anthriscus sylvestris and Chaerophyllum sylvestre

Umbellifer family

Crab Apple

Dog Rose

Dogwood

Elder

Elder Tree

Field Rose

French Meadow-rue

French Meadow-rue is
Thalictrum aquilegifolium

Flowers of Thalictrum aquilegiifolium. Moscow region, Russia. By Bff, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup family

A shortly rhizomatous perennial herb which occurs naturalised on roadsides and railway banks and also as a casual on tips. Suitable for Clay and Chalk.

Greater Knapweed

Greater Knapweed is
Centaurea scabiosa

Daisy-thistle family

Greater Stitchwort

Greater stitchwort is
Stellaria holostea

Pink Family

Guelder Rose

Hawthorn

Holly

Honeysuckle

Wild Arum
(Lords-and-Ladies, Cuckoo-pint, Starch-root, Starch-wort)

Arum maculatum

Arum Family

Primrose
(Butter-rose)

Primula vulgaris

Primrose Family

Privet

Red Campion

Red Campion is
Melandrium dioicum, Silene dioica and Lychnis dioica

Pink family

Spindle-tree

Spindle-tree is
Euonymus europaeus

Spindle tree family

Sweet Violet

Sweet Violet is
Viola odorata

Violet family

Traveller's Joy
Old Man's Beard

Traveller's Joy
Old Man's Beard is Clematis vitalba

Buttercup family

Visited by pollen-collecting bees and pollen-eating flies, especially Syrphids.

A climbing perennial with liana-like woody stems, often covering large areas on hedge banks, hedges and walls, trees and scrub, sand dunes, disused quarry faces and ruins. It is a classic railway plant. On base-rich soils, or utilising lime mortar, the plant can form virtual monocultures.

In hedgerows, thickets and wood-margins chiefly on calcareous rocks or soils.

The climbing Clematises most commonly grown in British gardens, with large violet to purple flowers, are hybrids of the Chinese Clematis lanuginosa with the Southern European Clematis viticella (Clematis x jackmanii Th. Moore), or with the Chinese Clematis patens (Clematis x lawsoniata Moore & Jackman). The viticella hybrids are later-flowering than the patens hybrids, and have usually only 4 sepals instead of 6-8. Clmatis montana DC, and Asiatic species, is also much grown for its profusion of smallish white or pink flowers.

When the plant has finished flowering, the developing seeds (known as achenes – an achene is a one seeded fruit) retain part of the flower – the style.  This has long, silky hairs, which form the grey tufted balls that are so conspicuous in some woodlands and hedgerows in autumn and winter.  These are, indeed, the ‘old man’s beard’. These silky structures are important in the dispersal of the seeds.

Tufted Vetch

Wayfaring Tree

The Wild Strawberry
(Stray-berry)

Fragaria vesca

Rose Family

Apple Mint (Round-leaved Mint)
 

Apple mint (round-leaved mint) is
Mentha rotundifolia (Mentha suaveolens)

Thyme family

A rhizomatous perennial herb of damp places. It is probably native only in South-West England and Wales, and elsewhere occurs as a garden escape, often forming extensive colonies on roadsides and waste ground. Apple scented white flowers in Aug-Sep.

Graphic of Mentha suaveolens - Place:Osaka,Japan. By I, KENPEI via Wikimedia Commons.

Barberry

Barberry is
Berberis vulgaris

Barberry family

Flies and bees.

Red berries produced in September-October, which are eaten by the birds, who also use them for nest-sites. Bright lemon-yellow flowers in May-Jun. BARBERRY Family.

Use as a deciduous shrub in hedgerows and coppices, and on banks, cliffs and waste ground in deciduous woodlands. Use as external hedge where the sharp spines on the twigs and the sharply toothed leaves act as an animal or human deterrent. Its deleterious effect on wheat crops was appreciated before it was known to be a host of the rust Puccinia graminis and consequently eradicated from many hedgerows in the 19th century.

Oregon Grape

Oregon Grape is
Mahonia aquifolium

Barberry family

An evergreen shrub which spreads rapidly by stolons and can become well established in hedgerows, road verges and woodland. A Thorny Hedgerow to keep people out and provide berries as food for birds.

Wood Goldilocks and
Goldilocks in the Buttercup Family

Wood Goldilocks and
Goldilocks in the Buttercup Family
Ranunculus auricomus

Buttercup Family

Visited by various flies and small bees.

A perennial, characteristic of deciduous woodland on chalk, limestone and other basic soils. It also grows in scrub, on roadsides and in churchyards, and rarely on open moorland sheltered by boulders and on montane ledges.

Often in shady places such as woodland or copses, but sometimes in meadows.

Hairy Buttercup

Hairy Buttercup is Ranunculus sardous

Ranunculus sardous. By Kristian Peters, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup Family

Visited by flies and small bees

When eaten, it would cause the eater's face to contort in a look resembling scorn (generally followed by death).

An annual of damp coastal pastures, poached pond edges and wet hollows, road verges, farm tracks and gateways. It is generally restricted to thin turf or disturbed areas on damp, neutral, moderately fertile soils.

Lesser Celandine , Pilewort

Lesser Celandine , Pilewort is
Ranunculus ficaria

Buttercup Family

Visited by various flies and bees, but often setting little seed.

An aestivating perennial herb that grows in woods, hedge banks, meadows, roadsides, maritime grassland, the banks of rivers and streams and shaded waste ground. It prefers damp, loamy or clay soils, and avoids very dry, very acidic or permanently waterlogged sites.

Vigorous groundcover that forms large, dense patches on the forest floor, displacing and preventing other native plants from co-occuring.

Lesser Meadow-rue

Lesser Meadow-rue is
Thalictrum minus

Buttercup Family

Visited by various flies and bees, but often setting little seed.

A morphologically variable, perennial herb found in calcareous or other base-rich habitats where competition is low, including fixed dunes, scrubby banks, rocky lake and river edges, limestone and serpentine cliffs, limestone grassland and pavement and montane rock ledges. It also occurs in other habitats, including churchyards, hedge banks and roadsides, as a garden escape.

3 main habitats of

• limestone rocks and grassland
• dunes
• streamsides or lakeside gravel and shingle

Meadow Buttercup

Meadow Buttercup is
Ranunculus acris

Buttercup Family

Pollinated by various insects, especially hover flies and small bees.

A perennial herb of damp meadows and pastures on a wide variety of soils, only avoiding very dry or acid conditions. It is a characteristic plant of unimproved hay and water-meadow communities, and now of relict herb-rich fragments on damp road verges; it also grows on dune grassland, in montane flushes and in tall-herb communities on rock ledges. It is unpalatable to grazing animals, but easily controlled in intensively managed pastures.

Damper Grassland.

Purple Clematis

Purple Clematis is
Clematis viticella

Clematis viticella. By I, Epibase, via Wikimedia Commons.

Buttercup family

See International Clematis Society and Clematis on the Web for further details

A deciduous climber or scrambling perennial, available to gardeners in a wide range of variously coloured cultivars. It is found as a persistent escape in hedgerows and on wasteland, and as a relic of cultivation. Reproduction by seed has not been reported.

Grows in light thickets, in forest edges or in hedges.

Saint Martin's Buttercup

Saint Martin's Buttercup is Ranunculus marginatus, Ranunculus scandicinus

Ranunculus marginatus. By Eitan f, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup family

A small annual, found as a naturalised weed of bulb-fields in the Isles of Scilly, and as a rare grain, bird-seed and wild-flower mixture alien elsewhere.

Roadsides. Mediterr-anean woodlands and shrublands. Stream banks, ditches, marshes and other moist, shady places.

Scilly Buttercup (Rough-fruited Buttercup)

Scilly Buttercup (Rough-fruited Buttercup) is Ranunculus muricatus

Ranunculus muricatus flower3 DC. By Harry Rose from South West Rocks, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup family

The plant also has a strongly acrid juice that can cause blistering to the skin.

An erect annual found naturalised as a weed of cultivated ground in S.W. England, particularly in bulb-fields and gardens in the Isles of Scilly, and as a bird-seed, grain and wool alien elsewhere.

Agricultural and roadside weed. It grows in wet habitats, such as irrigation ditches.

Small-flowered Buttercup

Small-flowered Buttercup is
Ranunculus parviflorus

Buttercup family

An annual of dry disturbed habitats on a range of neutral and calcareous soils. Typical sites include broken turf on cliff edges, open, droughted slopes and banks, rabbit scrapes, tracks, poached gateways, building sites and gardens. The seeds appear to be long-lived, and populations may reappear after disturbance or persist for many years.

Dry grassy banks and path-sides mostly on chalk or limestone.

Stinking Hellebore (Bear's-foot)
 

Stinking Hellebore (Bear's-foot) is Helleborus foetidus

Buttercup family

Trimethylamine is present in the flowers, which gives off an unpleasant smell to attract midges and bluebottles for their pollination. Visited by early bees and other insects. Seeds said to be dispersed by ants.

Compounds of sulphur are present and the whole plant emits a most unpleasant smell, especially when handled, hence its country name of Stinking Hellebore.

A short-lived perennial herb of shallow calcareous soils. It is a poor competitor, and intolerant of deep shade, so is usually found in small colonies in woodland glades or open scrub, on scree slopes, rock ledges, hedge banks, and as an introduction in churchyards. Adult plants near senescence (4-5 years old) are typically found with a cohort of seedlings.

Woods and scrub on chalk and limestone in Southern England.

Variegated Monkshood

Variegated Monkshood is
Aconitum cammarum

Aconitum × cammarum. By Danny Steven S. from Spain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Buttercup family

Poisoning by Aconitum may also occur following picking the leaves without wearing gloves; the aconitine toxin is absorbed easily through the skin. In this event, no gastrointestinal effects are seen. Tingling starts at the point of absorption and extends up the arm to the shoulder, after which the heart starts to be affected. The tingling is followed by unpleasant numbness. Treatment is similar to poisoning caused by oral ingestion.

A perennial with annually renewed tuberous rhizomes, found established in damp places on a range of soils, usually in shaded sites or in tall vegetation. Its habitats are more varied than those of other Aconitum taxa and include damp roadsides and pastures, waste ground and moist woodland.

Virgin's Bower, Fragrant Virgin's Bower

Virgin's Bower, Fragrant Virgin's Bower is
Clematis flammula

Clematis flammula, found in Corsica. By IKAl, via Wikimedia Commons.

Buttercup family

Pollinated by bees, flies.

All parts of the plant are poisonous, the toxic principle is dissipated by heat or by drying.

This is a scrambling or weakly climbing perennial. It is occasionally found naturalised on coastal cliffs, shingle beaches and dunes, and rarely inland.

Hedges, thickets and waste places.

Plants can be grown as ground cover, planted about 48 inches (120 cms) apart and allowed to scramble over the ground. Grows well on chalk soil.

Winter Aconite

Winter Aconite is
Eranthis hyemalis, Helleborus hyemalis

Buttercup family

Visited by hive-bees and flies.

All 8 species of Eranthis have a burning tast and are poisonous owing to the presence of an alkaloid.

A small, tuberous perennial, dying back in summer. It is naturalised, sometimes in large numbers, in open woodland, grassland and scrub associated with habitation, under park trees, in gardens and on road verges.

Glossy Green horizontal foliage appearing after the flowers and dying back by June

Yellow Anemone (Yellow Wood Anemone, Buttercup Anemone)

Yellow Anemone (Yellow Wood Anemone, Buttercup Anemone) is
Anemone ranunculoides

Anemone ranunculoides, northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. By Bernd Haynold, via Wikimedia Commons

Buttercup family

A spring-flowering rhizomatous perennial herb naturalised in shady places, such as in woodland and along paths.

Habitat: Rich waterside broad-leaved forests, coppices, stream banks, parks.

It needs a highly fertile, preferably clay-rich soil to thrive.

These yellow flowers can often last for two to three weeks if the weather conditions are cool.

Use in Rock Garden.

Wood Anemone or Wind Flower

Wood Anemone or Wind Flower is
Anemone nemorosa

Buttercup family

The 120 species of Anemone are sharp-tasting plants, poisonous owing to the presence of the narcotic anemonin and dangerous to cattle.

Visited for pollen by various bees and flies.

A rhizomatous perennial, found in woodland, on streamsides, under Pteridium, on hedge banks, in heathy grassland, on open moorland, in scree and on limestone pavement. It has a wide pH tolerance, but in woodlands it is most abundant where the vigour of more competitive species is reduced by acidity, waterlogging or regular coppicing.

Deciduous woodland, hedge-banks and mountains on all but highly acidic or water-logged soils in England Wales and Scotland

Oregon Grape

Oregon Grape is
Mahonia aquifolium

Barberry family

Pollinated by various insects. Its berries attract birds.

An evergreen shrub which spreads rapidly by stolons and can become well established in hedgerows, road verges and woodland.

Commonly planted for pheasant cover. Use its spiny leaflets in a boundary hedge.

Babington's Poppy

Babington's Poppy is
Papaver lecoqii (Papaver dubium subsp. lecoqii)

klaproos; eigen foto. by Rob Hooft at Dutch Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons

Poppy family

This annual is found in arable fields and in other disturbed open ground such as on roadsides, railway tracks and waste land, in gardens and along hedges. It is most frequent on heavy calcareous soils, and can be found in both spring- and autumn-sown crops. The seed can be very long-lived.

Grown for their cup-shaped flowers. Suitable for coastal conditions.

iSpot - A friendly and free community helping to identify wildlife and share nature in UK and Ireland run by The Open University.

Greater Celandine

Greater Celandine is
Chelidonium majus

Poppy family

Visited by pollen-collecting flies and bees.

This perennial herb is widely naturalised by roadsides and paths, in the crevices of old walls, on waste ground and in hedge-bottoms. It was at one time cultivated as a medicinal plant, and most localities are near habitation.

Banks, hedgerows and walls usually near buildings.

Garden hedgerows, rocky commons, rocky embankments in lush broad-leaved woods.

Long-Headed Poppy (Long Smooth-headed Poppy)

Long-Headed Poppy (Long Smooth-headed Poppy) is
Papaver dubium

Poppy family

Flowers visited by various pollen-collecting insects, especially bees. No nectar. Probably self-sterile.

An annual found principally in arable fields, where it can occur on both light and heavy calcareous soils. It is also found on waste ground by roadsides and railways, and in gardens. The seed is very long-lived. The commonest poppy in the North is also a native weed.

Prefers sandy soil without lime.

Use in Wildflower meadows, Butterfly & Bee Gardens, Cut Flowers.

Opium Poppy

Opium Poppy is
Papaver somniferum

Poppy family

An annual occurring as a casual garden escape on roadsides, waste ground and rubbish tips, and occasionally in arable fields as a relic of cultivation for poppy seed.

The capsule enlarges after flowering and makes a decorative cut flower fresh or dried. Grow in Gravel Garden or Wildflower meadow.

Welsh Poppy

Welsh Poppy is
Meconopsis cambrica

Poppy family

A long-lived perennial herb, native in damp, rocky woodlands and on shaded cliff ledges. It is also grown in gardens and has become naturalised on hedge banks, walls, roadsides and waste ground.

Its habit has enabled it to colonise the urban environment, growing between paving slabs and at the edges of walls.

Welsh political party Plaid Cymru adopted a stylised image of M. cambrica as its party logo.

Bird-in-a-Bush , Fumewort

Bird-in-a-Bush , Fumewort is
Corydalis solida , Corydalis bulbosa

Fumitory family

Further details on Corydalis from book "Bleeding Hearts, Corydalis, and their Relatives" in Plants suitable for small gardens.

Pollinated by long-tongued bees, sef-sterile.

Poisonous and in book CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names... by Umberto Quattrocchi.

A tuberous perennial herb found in woodland, hedgerows, churchyards and rough grassland, and on roadsides, river banks and walls. It occurs as a garden escape or throw-out, and often becomes naturalised. Reproduction is by seed and tubers.

Grow in a rock garden. Corydalis are highly useful at the front of a woodland border, with crocus, in front of dicentra or with miniature bulbs such as muscari or scillas. They can also be grown in pots of gritty soil, but keep compost cool and moist in summer. Partnered with hostas or hardy geraniums, they break into leaf after the corydalis vanish.

Common Fumitory , Fumitory

Common Fumitory is
Fumaria officinalis

Fumitory family

Native plant, which if seen in quantity at a distance the greyish foliage has the faint smoky appearance that gives the plant its name.

Pollinated by bees or probably more frequently selfed, self-fertile.

Its stems are poisonous due to the fumarin. An overdose is always fatal because it paralyses the respiratory system.

A scrambling annual of arable fields, allotments, gardens and other disturbed land, most commonly found on calcareous soils. Most germination occurs in the spring, and the seed bank is long-lived.

Habitat in shores.

Weed on cultivated ground on the lighter soils (Sand and Chalk), waste places and hedgebanks throughout the British Isles.

Use as an annual.

Common Ramping-fumitory (Wall Fumitory, Scrambling Fumitory)

Common Ramping-fumitory (Wall Fumitory, Scrambling Fumitory) is
Fumaria muralis

Fumaria muralis: Flower head. By Sten Porse, via Wikimedia Commons

Fumitory family

Self-pollinating.

This is the most common of the large-flowered Fumaria species. It may have become less common in arable habitats on freely-draining, acidic soils in recent years.

The stems tend to be quite weak, unable to support the weight of the plant, thus it creeps along the ground or sprawls over surrounding plants and objects.

Often on hedge banks.

Cultivated land, walls and wasteland.

Martin's Ramping-Fumitory (Few-flower fumitory)

Martin's Ramping-Fumitory (Few-flower fumitory) is
Fumaria martinii (Fumaria reuteri)

Fumitory family

This is a scrambling annual of freely-draining acidic soils, which has most recently been recorded in spring- and summer-sown crops on allotments, in gardens and in potato fields; also on the eroded soil of hedge banks.

Fumaria martinii is a plant specially protected under the Wildlife and Country-side Act 1981. Reasons for Notification:

Lake Allotments is of national importance to nature conservation as it contains the last known wild population of Martin’s ramping-fumitory Fumaria martinii in Britain. The world distribution of Martin’s ramping-fumitory is confined to Europe where, in addition to the Lake Allotments site, it is confined to scattered localities in France, Spain and Portugal.

Martin’s ramping-fumitory is an annual species: that is, it grows from seed and dies each year. It depends on the annual cultivation of the ground by the allotment holders to provide the conditions necessary for the seed to germinate. It seems to possess an unusual seed dormancy which makes it difficult to grow by sowing seed in other localities. It is thought that the soil in the Lake Allotments contains a large seed bank of Martin’s ramping-fumitory which ensures its continued survival in this locality. " from English-Nature

Purple Ramping-Fumitory

Purple Ramping-Fumitory is
Fumaria purpurea

Fumitory family

This is a scrambling annual of hedge banks, earth-core walls, arable land and gardens on acidic, freely-draining soils, usually most abundant in disturbed places, or in habitats opened up by summer drought. Most occurrences are in spring-sown crops, although in the Isles of Scilly it is found in bulb-fields. Species Action Plan for this plant.

It occurs on hedge-banks, walls, arable land, waste ground, roadsides and rarely earthy sea-cliffs.

UKButterflies Larval Foodplants website page lists the larval foodplants used by British butterflies. The name of each foodplant links to a Google search. An indication of whether the foodplant is a primary or secondary food source is also given.

Please note that the Butterfly you see for only a short time has grown up on plants as an egg, caterpillar and chrysalis for up to 11 months, before becoming a butterfly. If the plants that they live on during that time are removed, or sprayed with herbicide, then you will not see the butterfly.