Marsh Arrowgrass

Flower: A flower spike. The green flowers have purple edges. Individual flowers are up to 3mm wide. Flowers have 3 petals and 6 stamens. Fruit: Narrow, erect and arrow-like. Leaves: Long and grass-like leaves with deep grooves.

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Water Avens

Flower: Flowers borne on long stalks. Pink petals are notched and rounded. Dark red sepals are bell-shaped and nodding, 15mm wide. Fruit: Hooked fruits form a bur-like head. Leaves: Lower leaves are pinnate. The leaves on the stems are 3-lobed with small stipules at their bases.

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Silver Birch

Flower: Male yellow catkins hang loose, female catkins much shorter and erect. Often hybridizes with Downy Birch making identification somewhat difficult at times. Fruit: The female catkins develop hundreds of winged seeds as their fruit. Leaves: Deciduous. Stalked and triangular in shape with doubly serrated margins. Leaves turn yellow in autumn. Downy Birch leaves have got serrated margins only, not doubly serrated as with Silver Birch.

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Large Bittercress

Flower: 4 white petals which are very occasionally purple, up to 12mm wide. Flowers clustering together at the top of the plant. 6 stamens, purple anthers. Fruit: Long, thin, flat seed pods that eventually split open lengthwise. Leaves: Without a basal rosette, as with Hairy Bittercress and Wavy Bittercress. The basal leaves are long-stalked and the upper stem leaves are very short-stalked. The leaves run alternate along the stem and...

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Black Bog-rush

Flower: Small, dark brown, flattened spikelets. Fruit: An achene surrounded by a hard white coating. Leaves: Thread-like, unbranched, erect and grows in tight clumps straight out of the ground. The leaves have inrolled margins.

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Brooklime

Flower: Small deep blue flowers emerging in pairs from leaf axils, 4 petals. Fruit: A nearly spherical brown capsule, splitting open when mature. Up to 4mm in diameter. Leaves: Shiny and leathery, succulent leaves that are round to oval and have bluntly toothed margins. Their stems are often tinted reddish-brown.

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Butterbur

Flower: Large lilac-pink spikes growing up to 30cm and appearing before the leaves emerge. Fruit: The fruit and seeds (achenes) are white, hairy tufts, each up to 3mm in length. Leaves: Enormous rhubarb-like leaves, up to 1 metre across. The leaves are heart-shaped, toothed and grey beneath.

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Common Butterwort

Flower: Violet, on long stalks and up to 2cm. Diverging lower lip and a pointed spur. Fruit: Brownish-yellow capsule, ovate, with numerous small brown seeds. Leaves: Yellow-green star-shaped basal rosette with margins curled upwards. 3 to 6 succulent leaves, each up to 8cm long. Butterwort is an insectivorous plant. The leaves feel sticky to touch because the leaf...

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Marsh Cinquefoil

Flower: Maroon, star-shaped, 5 pointed petals, up to 3cm. Fruit: A small dry nutlet. Leaves: Greyish-green leaves, pinnate with 3 to 7 coarsely toothed leaflets. The undersides have a bluish hue and the upper sides are sometimes tinged red. The lower leaves are long-stalked.

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Common Comfrey

Flower: Clusters of pink-purple or yellowish cream flowers, up to 2cm wide. Flowers can also be magenta, red or white. Fruit: A cluster of 4 shiny nutlets, later turning a dark brown or black. Leaves: Similar-looking to Foxglove leaves. Large, slender, undivided leaves with a rough texture.

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Common Cotton-grass

Flower: Fluffy white flowers resembling balls of cotton wool which give the plant its name. Multiple flowers emanating from the sides of the stem, unlike the Hare's-tail Cotton-grass which has a single flower... Fruit: Brown seeds, or 'achenes', up to 3mm long. They are flat, 3-sided, elliptical and widest above the middle. Leaves: Dark green, linear leaves.

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Hare's-tail Cotton-grass

Flower: Fluffy white flowers resembling balls of cotton wool which give the plant its name. Each plant bears a single flower emanating from the top of the stem, unlike Common Cotton-grass which has a multiple... Fruit: A brown seed called an achene, up to 3mm long. Leaves: Thin and spiky dark green grass-like leaves, growing up from around the base of the plant.

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Sensitive Fern

Flower: Flowers are absent on ferns. Instead, they reproduce using spores via a process called 'sporification'. Fruit: Spores exist on the erect, fertile stalks and are enclosed inside bead-like coverings. Leaves: A deciduous fern. Large, deeply pinnate. Each leaflet of the frond is untoothed and lanceolate to oblong. The fronds are sometimes called 'fiddleheads'.

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Water Figwort

Flower: Brighter than other Figwort species and sepals with pale edges. The small flowers are reddish-brown, on square stems. Fruit: Green and globular capsules, tapering into a sharp point. Leaves: Leaves appear in opposite pairs another along the square-stalked, erect stem. The leaves are round and have round-toothed margins. They become smaller towards the top of the plant. Sometimes the leave...

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Common Fleabane

Flower: Golden yellow daisy-like flowerheads upto 3cm across, flat-topped. 40-100 disc florets and 20-30 ray florets. Fruit: Dry, 1-seeded. Leaves: Silvery green leaves. Narrow, pointed, widest at the base, up to 8cm long. The alternate leaves are covered in a white down. The upper leaves look wrinkly.

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Reed Canary Grass

Flower: 2-3 flowered spikelets, variable in colour from white to pale yellow or purple. Fruit: A one-seeded fruit (caryopsis). Leaves: Broad, flat, linear and alternate leaves, up to 2.5cm wide.

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Gypsywort

Flower: White, purple-dotted and appearing in whorls from the bases of the upper leaves. 4 petals. Fruit: A dry fruit (schizocarp) in 4 parts. Leaves: Oval leaves in opposite pairs along the erect stem. The leaves are mostly stalked and have deeply serrated margins. The leaves sometimes turn red or purple in autumn.

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Hemp Agrimony

Flower: Dense trusses of pale pink florets with long white styles and long purple-tipped bracts. Fruit: A 5-edged achene with a white pappus, 3mm long. Leaves: Palmate, opposite leaves, up to 10cm long, on reddish stems. 3 to 5 lanceolate leaflets. The leaves have toothed margins.

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Field Horsetail

Flower: Flowerless. Horsetails reproduce by spores. Fruit: A blunt cone on the tip of the fertile stem in spring. The cone withers away after it has released its white spores. Leaves: The green stems have whorls of 4-angled leaf-like branches going up them. The branches are grow either outward or nearly erect from below the stems sheathed nodes.

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Great Horsetail

Flower: Flowerless. Horsetails reproduce by spores. Fruit: A blunt cone on the tip of the fertile stem, up to 8cm long, ripening in April. Leaves: The erect off-white coloured stems are brittle and smooth. The leaf-like branches off the main stem are up to 20cm long. There are between 20 and 40 of these branches per node along the stem.

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Marsh Horsetail

Flower: Flowerless. Horsetails reproduce by spores. Fruit: A blunt-tipped cone sits on top of the main stem. The cone matures in July and August. Leaves: The green furrowed stems have 8 to 10 ridges. Whorls of leaf-like branches appear along the erect single main stem. The branches are grow either outward or nearly erect from below the stems sheathed n...

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Water Horsetail

Flower: Flowerless. Horsetails reproduce by spores. Fruit: Ovoid cones sit on top of the fertile main stems. The cones are technically known as 'strobili' and reach a maximum of 1.5 cm in length. Leaves: The green furrowed stems have 10 to 30 very shallow grooves. Whorls of leaf-like branches appear along the erect single main stem.

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Yellow Flag Iris

Flower: Large, showy and eye-catching. Bright yellow with 3 spreading outer petals and 3 inner petals twisting inwards, up to 10cm. Fruit: A 3-angled capsule, or seed pod, packed tight with numerous seeds, splitting open later in the year. Up to 8cm long. Leaves: Long, linear, sword-like leaves which emerge out from the ground. Grows in water or on wet ground in compact clumps.

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Dotted Loosestrife

Flower: Yellow cup-shaped flowers with 5 hairy petals. Sepals green and narrow. Fruit: A long spherical capsule. Leaves: In whorls of 3 or 4 along the erect stems. The leaves of Dotted Loosestrife are oval and have round pointed tips. Leaf edges are untoothed. Darkly spotted with fine downy hairs on the undersides.

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Purple Loosestrife

Flower: Bright purple flower spikes in whorls up the stem, 6 petals. Fruit: The fruit capsules are enclosed within the sepals and consist of many reddish tiny seeds. Leaves: The leaves can be either opposite or in whorls of 3, and are sometimes slightly hairy. They are stalkless, long and slender, and are either heart-shaped or rounded at the base of their leaves.

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