Winter Aconite

Flower: Cup-shaped flowers, up to 3cm wide. The flowers have large, deeply cut, leafy bracts at their bases. Fruit: Follicles which contain the seeds. Leaves: A perennial with deeply cut, glossy, hairless basal leaves. Throughout the British Isles, Winter Aconite is most common in the east of England and Scotland.

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Alexanders

Flower: Yellow-green umbel. Fruit: Globular, ridged, turning black on ripening. Leaves: Yellowish-green bluntly toothed, divided and glossy.

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Lemon Balm

Flower: Flower spikes. The small white, inconspicuous flowers reach 1.5cm in diameter. Pollinated by bees. Fruit: A brown seed capsule. In fruit from August to October. Leaves: A hairy perennial with lemon-green leaves. The oval, pointed leaves darken with age. The leaves are simple, wrinkly and toothed. They are arranged along the stems in opposite pairs.

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Touch-me-not Balsam

Flower: Yellow, speckled red. 5 petals with broad lower lip and small upper hood. Fruit: Pendant capsules that burst open and scatter their seeds when touched. Leaves: Alternate, stalked and oval. Toothed margins.

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Darwin's Barberry

Flower: Small orange bell-shaped, hanging in clusters. Fruit: Small dark purple to black berries which ripen in summer. Leaves: Small and oval. The edges are spiny.

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Common Barberry

Flower: Hanging yellow flowers. Insect-pollinated. Fruit: Red, globular berries. The seeds ripen in September and October. Leaves: Deciduous shrub whose leaves appear from March to November. The leaves are simple, oval and spiny-toothed.

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Golden Barberry

Flower: Clusters of small golden yellow flowers. Insect pollinated. Fruit: Bluish-black berries. Its seeds ripen in August and September. Leaves: A spiny evergreen shrub whose leaves are simple, narrow and spiny-toothed. The branches are arching. The leaves are mid-green and alternate along its branches. Each leaf measures about 2cm in length. ...

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Chinese Barberry

Flower: Yellow or orange flowers, tinged with red. In clusters of up to 25 flowers. Fruit: Purplish-black, elliptical berries, up to 6mm long. In fruit from July to November. Leaves: A dense bush with glossy, dark green, spiny, obovate leaves. The leaves are pale beneath. The branches contain long spines. The Gagnepain's Barberry (Berberis gagnepainii) is a similar looking shrub b...

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Six-rowed Barley

Flower: The flower is a pale green spikelet. The spikelets are arranged in groups of 3 rows along the stem of the plant (rachis). The similar-looking Two-Rowed Barley (Hordeum distinchon) are arranged in grou... Fruit: An oval caryopsis, 7-10mm long and 2-3mm wide. Leaves: An annual grass species with long linear stems. The leaves are alternate.

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Wall Barley

Flower: Bristly flower spikes reaching up to 10cm in length, although seldom that long. Wind pollinated. Fruit: A flattened, globular caryopsis. A caryopsis is a type of one-seeded, dry fruit, typical of grasses and cereal crops. Leaves: An annual species of grass with long, stiff awns. The awns reach 3cm in length. The leaves also have long basal auricles. The sheaths are flat and hairy. This is the commonest species of Barley which ...

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Two-rowed Barley

Flower: Green spikes with awns of varying lengths depending on the exact species. Fruit: A single-seeded dry fruit, or grain, technically called a caryopsis. Leaves: An annual crop of the grass family. Barley has grass-like leaves. Green, long and linear.

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Hedge Bedstraw

Flower: Small clusters of white flowers which are pointed, 2-5mm. 4 stamens. Fruit: Small, wrinked nutlets. No bristles present. Leaves: 6 to 8 stalked leaves in whorls. Elliptical, untoothed and pointed with a small bristles at the tips.

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Field Bindweed

Flower: Pink with 5 white stripes, up to 2.5cm, trumpet-shaped. Fruit: An oval or roundish capsule containing 2 seeds, but sometimes 1-4. Leaves: Stalked, arrow-shaped, alternate, sharp-tipped and hairs are sparse.

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Hedge Bindweed

Flower: Usually pure white but occasionally pink with 5 white stripes, up to 6cm, trumpet-shaped. Sepals often purple tinged and only half-covered by two large bracts. Often hybridizes with Hedge Bindweed mak... Fruit: A capsule which contains 1 to 4 seeds, rarely more than 1cm long. Leaves: Long stalked, arrow-shaped leaves and sharp-tipped, not hairy. The bases of the leaves have angled lobes.

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Large Bindweed

Flower: White but occasionally pale pink with 5 white stripes, up to 9cm, trumpet-shaped. Bracts completely covering the sepals unlike Hedge Bindweed, however Large Bindweed often hybridizes with Hedge Bindwe... Fruit: Light brown capsules, usually containing 2 seeds. Leaves: Arrow-shaped with a sharp tip, alternate and long-stalked. The bases of the leaves have V-shaped angular lobes.

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Downy Birch

Flower: Male and female catkins appear on the same tree. Erect female catkins are shorter and green. Male catkins hang loosely in groups of 2-4. Often hybridizes with Silver Birch making identification tricky. Fruit: Small dry one-sided winged fruits, called 'achenes'. Leaves: Deciduous. Ovate, pointed and with serrated margins. Light green in spring, darkening and then turning yellow or orange in autumn. Leaves are often hairy underneath.

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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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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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Bouncing Bett

Flower: Soft pink flowers with double flowers. Bouncing Bett is the double-flowered variety of Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). Pollinated by butterflies and moths. 10 stamens. 2 styles. Fruit: A 4-parted capsule. The seeds ripen in August and September. Leaves: Leafy branches with opposite, entire leaves. The leaves are sometimes tinged red. A perennial which grows in patches.

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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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Common Broom

Flower: Rich yellow, pea-like flowers scattered up the stem, up to 2cm wide and occasionally tinged red. Fruit: Flattened brownish-black pods with hairy edges, up to 4cm long. Leaves: Deciduous. All leaves are minute. The leaves at the bottom of the branches are trefoil and along the stems they are lanceolate.

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False Buck's Beard

Flower: Compact pink or red spike. Flowers have 4 to 5 petals. 3 styles. Fruit: A capsule. Leaves: Fern-like in appearance. Alternate, stalked compound leaves with small oval, pointed leaflets. Leaflets have serrated margins.

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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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Lesser Burdock

Flower: Oval spiky flower heads. A feature worth noting when distinguishing between Greater Burdock and Lesser Burdock is the flower stalks. For Lesser Burdock, the flower stalks are very short, up to 1cm, bu... Fruit: Clusters of round, prickly fruit called 'burs'. The prickles of the burs have small hooks at their ends. The hooks can cause the fruit to stick to clothing and animal fur very easily while brushing pa... Leaves: The alternate stem leaves are large, broad, triangular with wavy edges. The even larger basal rosette leaves can be anything up to 20 inches long. Greater Burdock has solid lower leaf stalks, yet Less...

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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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