That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Oh they're pretty. Will they grow up to be huge hosta-eating snails though..?
ReplyDeleteVery cute..... but also grrr snails :)
ReplyDeleteCJ - I'm intrigued by them. They look very much like the tiny freshwater snails I'm used to seeing when I do stream survey work. But which of the familiar ones in the garden do they grow up to be? I'm sure they'll like my hostas though!
ReplyDeleteGaz - yes they are! But half an hour later they'd disappeared :/
They certainly are different from the baby snails in my garden, which have pretty flat shells. Perhaps you're about to become a site of special scientific interest!
ReplyDeleteWhy do babies of any species look so cute?
ReplyDeleteWhat was their fate?
Did they live to see another day or did you despatch them?
Helen - we nearly moved to North Wales a few years ago and the house I liked the look of did have a SSSI in its garden!
ReplyDeleteDobby - they simply crawled away! I'm trying to find out what they were because they're unlike the usual garden snails we see and they look much more like freshwater snails.