Common Alder

Flower: Yellow and pendulous (male catkins). Green and oval (female catkins). Male and female catkins present on same tree, and grouped in clusters of 3-8 on each stalk. Fruit: In winter the catkins turn into hard, dark, cone-like fruit which eventually release the seeds. Leaves: Deciduous. Round, dark green, leathery, smooth, serrated edges.

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Grey Alder

Flower: Pendulous, red-brown and becoming yellow later (male catkins). Red, erect and cylindrical (female catkins). Male and female catkins present on same tree. Fruit: Wooded cones which persist on the tree throughout winter months. Leaves: Deciduous. Hairy, ovate and pointed, glossy, grey beneath.

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Wild Angelica

Flower: White, often tinged with pink, umbels up to 15cm across. Fruit: Flattened, round, oval papery wings. Dispersed by the wind. Leaves: Alternate, long-stemmed. Triangular 3-pinnate leaves. Leaflets are sharp-tipped and have serrated margins. Not hairy.

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Himalayan Balsam

Flower: Pink-purple to white. Fruit: The seed pods explode spectacularly and unexpectedly upon reaching maturity. Each pod contains many seeds and individual seeds can be projected as far as 5 meters away. This plant is notorious for bei... Leaves: Green elliptical leaves with serrated margins. Up to 8cm in length. The toothed edges are red in colour.

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Orange Balsam

Flower: Orange with many blood-red spots. Fruit: Oblong capsules which later become explosive when touched. When the capsules explode, the many seeds within them are scattered and the plant can soon become invasive and out of control. Leaves: Alternate, ovate and stalked. The margins of the leaves are toothed but the teeth are well spaced apart.

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Gagnepain's Barberry

Flower: Golden yellow flowers are produced in clusters of about 5 or 6 (but sometimes up to 12), borne on short shoots. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Waxy, bluish-black, oblong fruit. 1cm in length. The seeds ripen in September and October. Leaves: A thorny shrub with simple, lanceolate, toothed leaves. The thorns on the branches are 3-spined. The teeth on the leaf margins are tipped by short spines too. Chinese Barberry (Berberis julianae) is s...

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Paper-bark Birch

Flower: Inconspicuous male and female catkins which are borne on the same tree, usually present in clusters of 3. Fruit: Small nutlets appear in clusters. Leaves: Deciduous. Ovate with pointed tips, stalked and with serrated edges. Turns yellow in autumn. Up to 4cm long.

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Common Bistort

Flower: Pink compact spike, 5 petals. Fruit: A black shiny nut. Leaves: Slender triangular-shaped leaves on long winged stalks. The leaves on the stem are arrow-shaped.

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Red Bistort

Flower: Red compact single or double spikes, 5 petals. Leaves: Heart-shaped leaves with a pointed tip, similar in appearance to Dock leaves. Upper leaves clasp the stem at the nodes.

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Wavy Bittercress

Flower: Tiny and forming clusters at the top. 4 white petals with 6 yellow stamens. Counting the number of stamens is perhaps the most reliable way to distinguish this flower from the almost identical Hairy B... Fruit: Long, thin, cylindrical seed pods which usually are lower than the topmost flowers. This is useful to know when trying to distinguish this flower from Hairy Bittercress which has seed pods that normal... Leaves: The basal rosette has alternate leaves. Stem leaves are compound with 3-6 pairs of leaflets and a terminal leaflet. Leaflets are wavy edged. The upright main stem upon which the leaves emerge from are...

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Bleeding Heart

Flower: 2-spurred pinkish-purple, heart-shaped, pendant flowers (up to 2.5cm long) on a leafless stem. Flowers are in clusters of 5 to 15. Flowers have 2 sepals and 6 stamens in groups of 2's. Fruit: An elongated capsule. Leaves: Finely divided, alternate, greyish-green, fern-like leaves. A deciduous perennial.

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Willow-leaved Bridewort

Flower: Compact rosy-pink spike, each flower having 5 petals. Fruit: The flowers turn brown and develop into many seeded dry fruit. Leaves: Deciduous shrub. The leaves are alternate, narrow, oval, slightly toothed, blunt-tipped and slightly hairy.

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Viper's Bugloss

Flower: Pink buds which turn into a dense spike of funnel-shaped blue flowers. Downy sepals and 4-5 pink stamens. Fruit: Wrinkled nutlets, mossy in appearance. Leaves: The simple, rough, hairy, entire leaves are long and narrow with a prominent midrib. 1 alternate leaf per node.

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Great Burnet

Flower: Oval burgundy-coloured flower heads on long stalks. Fruit: An achene which is a small one seeded dry nut. Leaves: Alternate, long-stalked, compound leaves with up to 7 pairs of oval, stalked and toothed leaflets.

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Salad Burnet

Flower: Oval burgundy-coloured flower heads on long stalks. Fruit: An achene which is a small one seeded dry, ridged nut. Leaves: Pinnate, having up to 12 pairs of toothed leaflets.

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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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Sweet Cicely

Flower: White umbels reaching 6cm wide and no bracts. Individual flowers have 5 petals. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Long, green, shiny, cylindrical and ribbed. The fruits are erect and about 2cm long. Leaves: Similar looking to Cow Parsley but are softer to the touch. They are 2-4 pinnate with small flecks on close inspection.

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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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Coltsfoot

Flower: Solitary with bright yellow disc and ray florets, up to 1.5cm. The flowers are borne on long, scaly stems which rise straight from the ground. The undersides of the flower are covered in white woolly ... Fruit: A conspicuous dandelion-like, white pappus. Leaves: The leaves are round, heart-shaped or polygonal. The flowers die back before the emergence of the first leaves.

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Creeping Comfrey

Flower: Reddish-pink flowers at first then later turning white or pale yellow. The sepal teeth are cut very deeply. This is the first Comfrey species to flower in the UK. The plant carries one-sided, nodding ... Fruit: The fruit is small and insignificant. Its seeds ripen in June and July. Leaves: The UK's most frequently seen creeping and patch-forming species of Comfrey. It is a hairy perennial with large and crinkly, mid-green leaves. The leaves are rough to touch. They measure anything up t...

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Crosswort

Flower: Minute pale yellow flowers that are borne in clusters around the base of the leaves. 4 petals. Fruit: Tiny, round nutlets. Black when ripe. Leaves: Leaves are pale green, hairy, simple, entire and elliptical. They are in whorls of 4 going along the stems. In fact, only 2 out of the 4 of those leaves are real leaves; the other two are stipules.

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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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Marsh Cudweed

Flower: Unstalked dense clusters, tiny, yellow and brown. Fruit: A tiny achene with a white, hairy pappus. Leaves: Greyish or silvery-green, alternate, short-stalked, lanceolate leaves. Cottony in appearance. Leaves have entire margins.

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Dame's-violet

Flower: Very variable in colour ranging from purple, lilac and white, 4 petals, up to 2cm across. Similar-looking flower to Phlox, but Phlox has 5 petals and not 4. Fruit: Slender, elongated, cylindrical pods, each up to 4 inches long. They emerge outwards from the main stem and then curves upwards. Each pod contains a single row of seeds. Leaves: Lanceolate, mostly stalkless with toothed margins, up to 5 inches long. The base of the leaf is rounded and leaf tip tapers into a point.

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Curled Dock

Flower: Oval flattened green flowers in dense leafless spikes that do not spread outwards from the main stem. Fruit: Dark brown, round, winged seeds with oval warts. The wings do not have teeth, as is the case with Broad-leaved Dock. Leaves: Long, narrow and with curly edges. Up to 25cm in length. Curled Dock is named for it's curly leaf margins.

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