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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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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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...

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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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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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Buttonweed

Flower: Solitary, bright yellow flowers positioned on top of erect stems. The flowers are button-like in appearance. Flowers measure about 8mm across. Insect pollinated. Fruit: A winged seed. Leaves: Variable, yellowish-green leaves. Leaves range from broad-linear to deeply divided. The leaves are arranged alternately along the stems. Reddish, succulent stems. Patch-forming, hairless perennial.

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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 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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Greater Cuckooflower

Flower: Clusters of pink flowers with purple veins. Insect-pollinated. Fruit: Pods. Leaves: A perennial with pinnate leaves, divided into pairs. The end leaflet is large.

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Red-seeded Dandelion

Flower: Solitary pale yellow flowers, about 1 inch (2.5cm) across. Flowerheads are composed entirely of ray florets. Flowers have between 150 and 200 ray florets. The flowers of Red-seeded Dandelion are small... Fruit: The fruit of Dandelions are known as achenes. It consists of a single oblong seed tipped by a feathery ring of hairs. The Red-seeded Dandelion can be easily distinguished from Common Dandelion in that... Leaves: All leaves are basal. They measure up to 10 inches (25cm) long and 1.5 inches (4cm wide). Deeply pinnate, backward-pointing, triangular but narrow leaf lobes. The lobes are pointed at the tips. Perenn...

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Least Duckweed

Flower: Insignificant. The flowers consist of 2 stamens and a style. Fruit: Insignificant and minute. Leaves: Duckweed is invasive and mat-forming. It carpets the surface of the water so thick that it can completely block out the light below. The leaves are elliptical, dull green and slightly ridged. The leav...

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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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Marsh Foxtail

Flower: 6cm flower spikes. Yellow or purplish anthers. Blunt ligules. Fruit: A caryopsis. Leaves: Bluish-green and 12cm (5 inches) in length. Perennial. Marsh Foxtail is much shorter in height than the similar-looking Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis). Marsh Foxtail also grows in wet habitats ...

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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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Marsh Helleborine

Flower: Petals are crimson and white, on the inside and outside. The long ruffled lip has a yellow spot in the lower half and crimson streaks in the cup-shaped upper half. Fruit: A nodding, ribbed capsule containing many minute seeds. Leaves: Long and slender, alternate, stalkless leaves with parallel veins, tapering into a point. Leaf margins are toothless.

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