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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Narrow-leaved Arrowhead

Flower: Whorls of white flowers are produced. Fruit: Globular-shaped fruit. Leaves: The leaves are narrow and linear. Floating and submerged leaves are present. There are no aerial leaves. Perennial.

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Canadian Arrowhead

Flower: Flowers are in whorls of 3, each measuring approximately 1 inch across. The petals are white, tinged pink. 6 or more stamens. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Globular fruit covered in hooked seeds. The fruit turns reddish as the seeds mature. Leaves: An aquatic perennial with submerged, broadly elliptical, long-stalked leaves, tapering to a point.

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Bog Arum

Flower: A greenish white spadix, up to 8cm long. Pollinated by flies. Fruit: Red berries in autumn. The seeds ripen in August and September. Leaves: A deciduous, evergreen perennial which grows in shallow water. The broadly heart-shaped leaves are dark green and glossy.

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Aunt Eliza

Flower: The orange-brown flowers are about 6cm in length. They are arranged alternately along its zigzagged stems. Fruit: A 3-angled, green capsule, turning brown upon ripening. Leaves: A clump-forming perennial with olive green, deeply pleated, wiry leaves. The plant grows from a corm. Seldom found growing wild in the UK but not unheard of.

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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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Awlwort

Flower: Flowers have 4 narrow, white petals. 2 or 3mm wide. Fruit: Tiny, egg-shaped, inflated pods. Leaves: An annual or biennial aquatic plant which is almost always completely submerged. The pale green leaves appear in tufts and are cylindrical, linear and sharp-pointed. This plant looks similar to Shorew...

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Sea Barley

Flower: The spike is a maximum of 5cm in length. It has stiff, strongly spreading awns, up to 2.5cm long. Fruit: The fruit is a caryopsis. A caryopsis is a type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: An tufted, erect, annual species with glaucous, velvety leaves.

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White Beak-sedge

Flower: White spikelets, appearing in flat clusters. Clusters measure about 1 inch (2.5cm) across. Clusters are positioned at the top of erect stalks, each with a leaf-like bract below it. Spikelets within th... Fruit: Flower spikelets turn brown on maturing and each produces 1 or 2 flattened, oval seeds. Surrounding the base of the fruit are several hooked bristles. Leaves: Grows in tight clumps, with 3-angled stems at the tips but flat at their bases. The hairless leaves are alternately arranged along the stems. Perennial.

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Fen Bedstraw

Flower: Loose clusters of white flowers. Each flower is up to 3mm across. Yellow anthers. Fruit: The fruits are low-domed warts. Leaves: Whorls of leaves in groups of 6 to 10. Leaves are one-veined. The linear leaves have prickly edges. Similar to Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre) but Fen Bedstraw often has rougher, purplish leaves. Fen...

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Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: Small, white flowers. Up to 4mm in diameter. Fruit: Small, globular fruit, slightly wrinkled. Leaves: Rough-margined leaves, in whorls of 4 to 6. Stems are without prickles. The similar-looking Fen Bedstraw (Galium oliginosum) does not have prickles on the stems. Perennial which sometimes grows in wat...

Video: Marsh Bedstraw filmed in Capernwray, Lancashire on the 17th July 2022.

 

Music credits
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN11002...

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Great Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: The flowers are small and white, appearing together in clusters. The flowers are larger than those of Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre). Fruit: The fruit is a wrinkled nutlet. Leaves: The leaves are configured in whorls of 4 to 6. They have rough margins. The stems are without prickles. This is a perennial species, sometimes growing in water. It can be found throughout all parts of...

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Slender Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: Flowers appear in small clusters. The flowers are pale pink on the outside and creamy-white inside. Flowers each measure 2 or 3mm across. Fruit: The fruit is a high domed, warted nutlet. Leaves: The linear leaves are in whorls of 4 to 6 along the stems. The tips of the leaves can be either blunt or pointed. Similar in appearance to Fen Bedstraw (Galium uliginosum) and Marsh Bedstraw (Galium p...

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Velvet Bent

Flower: Purplish spikelets and awned florets. Spikelets measure between 2 and 2.5mm in length. Fruit: The fruit is a caryopsis. A type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: The leaves are very narrow. They each have a jagged, long, pointed ligule.

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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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Bogbean

Flower: The flowers of Bogbean are distinctive and star-shaped. They are held above the water inside dense, erect flower spikes. The flowers have white fringed petals and are covered in conspicuous white hair... Fruit: The fruit is a spherical, many-seeded capsule. Leaves: An aquatic perennial plant with leaves projecting to 30cm above the surface of the water in which it floats. Large trefoil leaves with broadly oval leaflets, similar in appearance to those of Broad Be...

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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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Pale Bridewort

Flower: Clustered white flower spikes (sometimes pink). Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Brown pods, persisting after the flowers have perished. Leaves: An upright deciduous shrub with leaves which alternate along the stems. The narrow leaves have toothed margins and are glossy and yellowish-green. Yellowish-brown twigs.

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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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Brookweed

Flower: Flower spikes (racemes). Each flower has an inward bending long stalk and is about 2 to 4mm across. The bend in the stalk has a tiny, pointed bract. Triangular but blunt-pointed sepals. Orange heart-s... Fruit: Green globular fruit capsules containing many reddish-brown seeds. The seeds ripen from July to August. Leaves: A hairless, normally unbranched flower with pale green, fleshy, upright, spoon-shaped leaves. The oval leaves remain close to the stems. The basal leaves are the largest. The stem leaves are alternate...

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Lesser Bulrush

Flower: Tiny and densely packed, sausage-shaped, spongy, brown flowers. Similar to Common Bulrush (typha latifolia) but the flowers are a paler brown. Also, Lesser Bulrush often has its male and female flower... Fruit: A dry, cottony / hairy nutlet (called an achene). Leaves: Long, thin, linear leaves, similar to Common Bulrush except that they are narrower and paler. The leaves are 1 to 2cm wide. Common and Lesser Bulrush can hybridise to produce Typha angustifolia x lati...

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London Bur-marigold

Flower: The branching stems have 1 to 3 orange-yellow flowerheads. The inner bracts which surrounds the yellow centre of the flower are brownish and oval. The leafy outer bracts are narrowly elliptical and un... Fruit: Oblong, dark brown or dark purple fruit, not flattened as in the similar looking Trifid Bur-marigold (Bidens tripartita). There are 2 to 4 hooked awns at one end of the fruit. Leaves: The broadly lance-shaped, toothed leaves are usually in opposite pairs going up the stem. Some of the upper leaves are alternate along the stems. Leaf blades measure up to 6 inches (15cm) long and 1.5...

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Nodding Bur-marigold

Flower: Golden yellow, oval petals. The tips of the petals are either notched or pointed. Flowers have 5 stamens. The inner bracts are blunt and pale yellow. The green outer bracts of the flowers are long, na... Fruit: A dark brown, 4-angled seed, 6 to 8mm in length. The tip of the seed has 3 or 4 barbed awns attached to it. The fruits are narrower than those of Trifid Bur-marigold. Leaves: The leaves are narrow, measuring up to 6 inches (15cm) long and 1 inch (2.5cm) wide. They are stalkless and hairless. The leaves are opposite and clasp the stem. Leaf margins have some but few large t...

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White Burnet

Flower: Elongated, creamy-white, cylindrical flowerheads, each up to 20cm (8 inches) tall. Flowers each have 4 long stamens. No true petals. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Winged capsules. The seeds ripen in September and October. Leaves: A tall, clump-forming perennial flower, much taller than other UK burnet species. The leaves are pinnate and the leaflets are narrowly oblong.

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