Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Flower: Violet-blue flowers in leafy clusters. The mauve-coloured stamens are prominent. Flowers measure between 9 and 12mm across. Fruit: Ridged nutlets. Leaves: A hairy, creeping perennial with upright stems and rough, heart-shaped leaves. The large leaves are stalked and have a sandpaper-like texture. A garden escape species which sometimes naturalises in th...

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False Acacia

Flower: Cream-white, pea-like flowers. The flowers hang down in a loose spike and are similar in appearance to Laburnum but creamy-white and not yellow. Fruit: Brown pea-like pods, up to 4 inches long. Leaves: Deciduous. Dark green, pinnate leaves, up to 25cm in length. 3 to 9 pairs of blunt, oval leaflets. Leaflets are untoothed.

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Two-spined Acaena

Flower: Globular flowerheads. Flowers are without petals. Each flower has 2 spines. White stamens. Fruit: The fruit is globular and spiny. The spines are purplish-red. Fruits measure up to 3cm in diameter. Leaves: A mat-forming perennial with bright green, pinnate leaves, up to 12cm long. The toothed leaflets are in 6 to 8 opposite pairs, plus a terminal leaflet. The young stems are hairy and often tinged red. ...

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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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Bastard Agrimony

Flower: The yellow flowers appear together in clusters. Each flower measures from 7 to 10mm across. Fruit: A roundish fruit. Unlike Common Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) and Fragrant Agrimony (Agrimonia procera), the fruit is without bristles. Leaves: A sprawling perennial. The leaves are trefoil and toothed. Scotland only, mainly around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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Fragrant Agrimony

Flower: The inflorescence is a long flower spike. The flowers are about 1cm across with notched tips. 12 stamens. 2 pistils. Fruit: Bell-shaped, burred fruit with hooks that are down-turned. The fruit is about 1cm long. Leaves: No basal leaves. The stem leaves are stalked and alternate up the stems. They are pinnate leaves with 3 to 7 pairs. Leaflets are lance-shaped and large toothed. The leaves are more deeply toothed than...

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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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Italian Alder

Flower: The male and female flowers appear on separate trees. The yellowish-brown male catkins are pendulous and borne in clusters of 3 to 6 and are up to 10cm long. The male catkins appear before the leaves ... Fruit: The female flowers become woody and turn into the cone-like fruit. The fruit are overwintering. The cones are larger than most other Alder cone species, up to 2.5cm long. Leaves: A deciduous tree with dark green, alternate, glossy, heart-shaped leaves and finely serrated margins. Cordata (see Botanical Name) means 'heart-shaped'.

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Green Alkanet

Flower: Bright blue, 8-10mm, 5 petals. Fruit: 4 nutlets per flower, each having a ridged surface. Leaves: Hairy, broad, alternate leaves with deep veins and pointed tips. Leaves are smaller and without stalks towards the top.

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Wood Anemone

Flower: White, often tinged with pink, 5-10 sepals (the white petals are actually sepals). Fruit: One-sided winged nuts called achenes, containing the seeds. Wind pollinated. Leaves: Simple, deeply cut leaves with a red stem.

Video: Wood Anemone's filmed at Standish, near Wigan (UK), on the 15th April 2022.

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Yellow Anemone

Flower: Saucer-shaped, rich yellow flowers, each being 2 to 2.5cm in size. Similar in appearance to Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) but with yellow flowers, not white. Fruit: The fruit is a winged nut. Leaves: A perennial flower with finely divided leaves, segmented into 3 leaflets. The margins of the leaflets are toothed.

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Blue Anemone

Flower: Large, blue daisy-like flowers. Similar in appearance to Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) but the flowers are larger, (usually) blue and have more petals. The petals are narrow. Rarely specimens have w... Fruit: The fruit is a winged nutlet (achene). Leaves: The dark green leaves are divided into 3 toothed leaflets. Perennial.

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Balkan Anemone

Flower: The flower has many blue narrow petals. Balkan Anemone is much like Blue Anemone (Anemone apennina) but the petals are narrower and hairless underneath. Flowers measure 3 or 4cm in diameter. Sometimes... Fruit: The fruit is a winged nutlet called an achene. An achene is a type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: The leaves are palmate and dark green. They are 3-lobed and each lobed is toothed around the margins. A compact perennial flower. Garden escape species.

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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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Crab Apple

Flower: Pinkish white in small clusters, 5 petals. Fruit: Fruit is long stalked, small and round, no larger than 2 inches in diameter but usually much smaller. Colour is very variable. Leaves: Deciduous. Stalked, oval with serrated edges.

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Variegated Yellow Archangel

Flower: Butter yellow flowers, in whorls up the stem. Fruit: Clusters of bell-shaped nutlets. Leaves: Dark green, long-stalked and heart-shaped. Mottled with conspicuous silvery blotches.

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Yellow Archangel

Flower: Butter yellow flower, resembling those of a Dead-nettle. The flowers appear in clustered whorls up the stems. They are borne in the leaf axils. Fruit: Bell-shaped nutlets. Leaves: Dark green, long-stalked and heart-shaped. There are no conspicuous silvery blotches on the leaves like the similar looking Variegated Yellow Archangel has got.

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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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Asarabacca

Flower: Pale yellowish-green bell-shaped flowers. No petals. 3 maroon sepals. The flowers are usually hidden beneath the leaves. 12 stamens. Pollinated by flies. Fruit: A 6-parted capsule. Leaves: The leathery, dark green leaves are glossy and kidney-shaped. The leaves measure about 3 inches (7.5cm) across. Evergreen perennial. Asarabacca has a preference for growing in Beech woodland.

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Common Ash

Flower: Petalless with tufts of purple-to-black stamens which turn green later. Fruit: Numerous hanging winged seeds which form clusters. The fruits of this tree are often called 'keys'. Leaves: Deciduous. Britain's only native tree with opposite, pinnate leaves. Leaflets are dark green and toothed.

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Mountain Ash

Flower: White with cream-coloured anthers. Fruit: Tight clusters of red berries. Leaves: Deciduous. Similar to Common Ash leaves. Pinnate with toothed leaflets.

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Aspen

Flower: Male and female catkins are green, and are borne on different trees. Both male and female catkins look alike, however later on the male catkins become dangly and the females remain firm. Fruit: Long hanging conical capsules develop on the catkins. Leaves: Deciduous. The stalked leaves of the Aspen are heart-shaped with wavy edges and have whitish undersides. Their shape causes them to shiver and tremble in the wind, giving the tree a distinctive quiver...

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Wood Avens

Flower: The long stalked, star-shaped flowers appear in loose clusters and are up to 2 cm across in diameter. The sepals turn downwards as the fruit forms. The flowers are similar in appearance to those of St... Fruit: Hooked fruit forming a bur-like head, bronze-tipped. Leaves: The leaves are unstalked. The lower ones are pinnate with the terminal leaflet being much the largest. Stem leaves are smaller and trefoil.

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Yellow Azalea

Flower: Funnel-shaped, bright yellow flowers, up to 5cm across. Flowers appear together in dense clusters of 5 to 25. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: A dry, woody seed capsule, containing several minute seeds. Leaves: A bushy deciduous shrub whose leaves are oblong and turn red, purple or orange in autumn. Commonly seen as a garden plant in the British Isles but sometimes seen bird-sown in woods and on moorland. Th...

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Bastard Balm

Flower: Whorls of white flowers with the lower lip being mainly pink. Flowers each measure up to 4cm in size. Pollinated by bees and moths. Fruit: The fruits are nutlets. Leaves: The crinkled, hairy leaves vary in shape and colour, measuring from 5 to 9cm in length. They are generally oval and pointed. Perennial.

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