Family: Boraginaceae
Common name: White Comfrey
Scientific name: Symphytum orientale
Date taken: 1/4/2023
Notes: Could be distinguished from other comfreys by its white flowers, calyx teeth <1/2 length of tube, unwinged stems, and upright stature. This population is found growing naturally on banks of agricultural ditches.
Family: Boraginaceae
Common name: Creeping comfrey
Scientific name: Symphytum grandiflorum
Date taken: 29/3/2023
Notes: A garden escape. Flowers earlier than other comfreys. Flowers buds red but turn to cream coloured when open. Compared to White Comfrey (Symphytum orientale), plant tends to be shorter and leaves glossier.
Family: Polygonaceae
Common name: Equal-leaved knotgrass
Scientific name: Polygonum arenastrum
Date taken: 28/8/2022
Notes: Differs from Knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare) in having equally sized leaves on flowering and non-flowering branches. Sources also mention the fact that lobes of tepals fuse more (>1/3) in this species, but personally I found that difficult to observe and judge.
Family: Scrophulariaceae / Plantaginaceae (APG)
Common name: Ivy-leaved Speedwell
Scientific name: Veronica hederifolia
Date taken: 25/2/2023
Notes: Solitary flowers on leaf-axils. As the common name suggests, the species possesses palmately-loved leaves that, in some sense, resemble that of ivy.
Family: Liliaceae / Alliaceae (APG)
Common name: Daffodil
Scientific name: Narcissus pseudonarcissus
Date taken: 14/3/2023
Notes: Likely the native variety as the plant (1) has pale yellow outer perianth segments along with golden-yellow inner tube and (2) is generally small in size.
Family: Primulaceae
Common name: Primrose
Scientific name: Primula vulgaris
Date taken: 14/3/2023
Notes:
Primrose is heterostylous. This means that some plants only produce pin flowers with long stigmas + short stamens, while others only produce thrum flowers with long stamens + short stigmas. The phenomenon has been noticed by Darwin, who hypothesised that the arrangement promoted cross-pollination between different plants. More recent research showed that heterostyly in primrose is controlled by a supergene called the S locus, which is absent in pin-flowered plants but present as one single copy (hemizygous) in thrum-flowered plants.
This population was found scattered on chalk grasslands in South London.
Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36304-4
Family: Lamiaceae
Common name: Black Horehound
Scientific name: Ballota nigra
Date taken: 4/7/2022
Notes: Weed growing in the back garden. Could be mistaken as Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) from afar, but flowers are shaped differently. With calyx tubes long and funnel-shaped.
