Alexanders

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

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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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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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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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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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Bulbous Buttercup

Flower: 5 glossy yellow petals with sepals bent back against the stalks. Up to 3cm wide. Fruit: A cluster of achenes, no larger than half a centimetre across. Leaves: Long-stalked, 3-lobed and toothed. The central leaflet is long-stalked.

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Meadow Buttercup

Flower: 5 glossy yellow petals on furrowed stalks, up to 2.5cm wide and with spreading sepals. Fruit: A cluster of achenes, no larger than half a centimetre across. Leaves: The palmate leaves are variable but have 3 to 7 deeply cut lobes. The end lobe is unstalked.

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Bladder Campion

Flower: 5 deeply notched petals, up to 2cm across. Its inflated calyx, which ranges from purple to yellow, gives Bladder Campion its name and makes it easily distinguishable from other flowers of the same gen... Fruit: Dry, round, papery capsules which split open when ripe. The capsules bear many seeds and are reticulated. Leaves: Greyish-green leaves with pointed tips, narrow and oval. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs.

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Red Campion

Flower: 5 rose-pink notched petals, up to 2.5cm. Flowers range in colour from dark red to pale pink depending on geographic location. Fruit: An ovoid capsule with 10 curved back teeth after becoming ripe. The capsule contains numerous seeds. Leaves: The dark green leaves are untoothed and appear in opposite pairs. They are lanceolate, pointed and with long winged stalks.

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White Campion

Flower: 5 white notched petals, up to 3cm. Calyx is greener, narrower and twice as long as with Red Campion. Fruit: Light yellow or brown ovoid capsules, bearing numerous seeds. Leaves: Opposite, hairy, untoothed, lanceolate, dark green leaves. Basal leaves are stalked and the upper leaves are unstalked.

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Wild Carrot

Flower: Our only white umbellifer with forked bracts emerging from beneath the flower. Umbel up to 7cm, folding inwards while in fruit. Often with a red flower in the centre. Fruit: The fruit is a distinctive cup-shaped, hooked and spiny umbel. The fruit can cling to the fur of passing animals and clothing, thus scattering the seeds far and wide to new locations. Leaves: The leaves are feathery; bi-pinnate or tri-pinnate.

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Greater Celandine

Flower: Small yellow flowers. Unrelated to Lesser Celandine and resembling Lesser Celandine only in appearance of its flowers. Fruit: A narrow cylindrical pod-like capsule containing black seeds. Leaves: Bushy and bluish-green in appearance. Pinnately divided with blunt lobes. Sparsely-haired leaves which are stalked and branch off alternately along the stems. Their undersides are silvery blue.

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Common Chickweed

Flower: Tiny white flowers with 5 deeply notched petals. 5 green hairy sepals with membranous edges. 3-8 yellowish stamens, later turning reddish brown. Fruit: Green, hairy, oval fruits on long drooping stalks. Leaves: Light green opposite leaves, pointed and hairless. The lower leaves are stalked.

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