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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Broad-leaved Arrowhead

Flower: The white (pink tinged) flowers have 3 petals and 3 green sepals. They form flower spikes and each flower is about 4cm wide. This species is similar to Arrowhead (Sagittaria saggitifolia) but without ... Fruit: The fruits are globular and produce seeds that ripen in August and September. Leaves: Arrow-shaped leaves on the end of a stalk, up to 30cm in length. Perennial.

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Sea Barley

Flower: The spike is a maximum of 5cm in length. It has stiff, strongly spreading awns, up to 2.5cm long. Fruit: The fruit is a caryopsis. A caryopsis is a type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: An tufted, erect, annual species with glaucous, velvety leaves.

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Fen Bedstraw

Flower: Loose clusters of white flowers. Each flower is up to 3mm across. Yellow anthers. Fruit: The fruits are low-domed warts. Leaves: Whorls of leaves in groups of 6 to 10. Leaves are one-veined. The linear leaves have prickly edges. Similar to Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre) but Fen Bedstraw often has rougher, purplish leaves. Fen...

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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...

Video: Marsh Bedstraw filmed in Capernwray, Lancashire on the 17th July 2022.

 

Music credits
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN11002...

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Great Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: The flowers are small and white, appearing together in clusters. The flowers are larger than those of Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre). Fruit: The fruit is a wrinkled nutlet. Leaves: The leaves are configured in whorls of 4 to 6. They have rough margins. The stems are without prickles. This is a perennial species, sometimes growing in water. It can be found throughout all parts of...

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Slender Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: Flowers appear in small clusters. The flowers are pale pink on the outside and creamy-white inside. Flowers each measure 2 or 3mm across. Fruit: The fruit is a high domed, warted nutlet. Leaves: The linear leaves are in whorls of 4 to 6 along the stems. The tips of the leaves can be either blunt or pointed. Similar in appearance to Fen Bedstraw (Galium uliginosum) and Marsh Bedstraw (Galium p...

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Creeping Bent

Flower: Clusters of flower spikelets, usually awned. Spikelets have only one floret. Often purplish. Similar in appearance to Common Bent (Agrostis capillaris) but its flowerheads are less open. Wind pollinat... Fruit: A brown caryopsis (a type of dry one-seeded fruit). Leaves: A perennial grass with creeping runners. Flat leaves with long pointed ligules. Abundant all over the British Isles.

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New Forest Bladderwort

Flower: 2-lipped. The airborne flowers appear on stalked, leafless stems. The flowers of New Forest Bladderwort have a broad, flat lip. Fruit: The fruit is a capsule. Leaves: A carnivorous aquatic plant whose leaves are comprised of numerous thread-like segments. Its minute bristles and small bladders trap insects as a means of obtaining food. In autumn, the bladders fill ...

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Lesser Bladderwort

Flower: Pale greenish-yellow, up to 8mm across. The flowers have a short, blunt spur. The flowers look similar to those of Snapdragon. Fruit: The fruit is a round capsule. Leaves: A small, carnivorous, perennial flower with leaves that alternate along the stems. This is the smallest of the British Bladderwort species. The leaves are sometimes bristled. The bladders trap small a...

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Nordic Bladderwort

Flower: Small pale yellow flowers, similar looking to Snapdragon flowers. Fruit: A globular capsule. Leaves: An aquatic carnivorous plant, often tinged red.

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Wavy Bladderwort

Flower: Yellow flowers, up to 15mm across. The lower lip has flat or slightly upturned margins and the spur is 7 or 8mm long. Flowers are on stems between 10 and 20cm in length. This species is similar in app... Fruit: The fruits are rarely seen in the British Isles. They are a many-seeded, globular capsule, similar in appearance to a small grape. Leaves: An aquatic perennial species. The green, thread-like, segmented leaves are present on both submerged and aerial stems.

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Greater Bladderwort

Flower: Rich yellow flowers, similar to those of Snapdragon. The lower lip of the flower is curved upwards and contains some red venation. The sepals are small, green and egg-shaped. Flower stalks are short a... Fruit: A very small, round capsule. Very rarely seen. Leaves: A perennial, aquatic and carnivorous species of flower. The thread-like leaves are alternate along the stems. They zigzag between branches. Reddish-green bladder-like organs (up to 5mm wide) are prese...

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Blinks

Flower: Very tiny white flowers appearing in clusters of 1 to 3. Short-stalked. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Shiny, black fruits. The seeds ripen from June to October. Leaves: A prostrate, low-growing, annual or short-lived perennial plant with small, narrowly oval to oblong (blunt-tipped) leaves. The leaves appear together in opposite pairs along the stems. Usually found g...

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Brookweed

Flower: Flower spikes (racemes). Each flower has an inward bending long stalk and is about 2 to 4mm across. The bend in the stalk has a tiny, pointed bract. Triangular but blunt-pointed sepals. Orange heart-s... Fruit: Green globular fruit capsules containing many reddish-brown seeds. The seeds ripen from July to August. Leaves: A hairless, normally unbranched flower with pale green, fleshy, upright, spoon-shaped leaves. The oval leaves remain close to the stems. The basal leaves are the largest. The stem leaves are alternate...

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Lesser Bulrush

Flower: Tiny and densely packed, sausage-shaped, spongy, brown flowers. Similar to Common Bulrush (typha latifolia) but the flowers are a paler brown. Also, Lesser Bulrush often has its male and female flower... Fruit: A dry, cottony / hairy nutlet (called an achene). Leaves: Long, thin, linear leaves, similar to Common Bulrush except that they are narrower and paler. The leaves are 1 to 2cm wide. Common and Lesser Bulrush can hybridise to produce Typha angustifolia x lati...

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London Bur-marigold

Flower: The branching stems have 1 to 3 orange-yellow flowerheads. The inner bracts which surrounds the yellow centre of the flower are brownish and oval. The leafy outer bracts are narrowly elliptical and un... Fruit: Oblong, dark brown or dark purple fruit, not flattened as in the similar looking Trifid Bur-marigold (Bidens tripartita). There are 2 to 4 hooked awns at one end of the fruit. Leaves: The broadly lance-shaped, toothed leaves are usually in opposite pairs going up the stem. Some of the upper leaves are alternate along the stems. Leaf blades measure up to 6 inches (15cm) long and 1.5...

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Nodding Bur-marigold

Flower: Golden yellow, oval petals. The tips of the petals are either notched or pointed. Flowers have 5 stamens. The inner bracts are blunt and pale yellow. The green outer bracts of the flowers are long, na... Fruit: A dark brown, 4-angled seed, 6 to 8mm in length. The tip of the seed has 3 or 4 barbed awns attached to it. The fruits are narrower than those of Trifid Bur-marigold. Leaves: The leaves are narrow, measuring up to 6 inches (15cm) long and 1 inch (2.5cm) wide. They are stalkless and hairless. The leaves are opposite and clasp the stem. Leaf margins have some but few large t...

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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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Unbranched Bur-reed

Flower: Similar to Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) but with far fewer flowerheads. However, the main difference is that the flowerheads are unbranched. Unbranched Bur-reed is also a shorter plant than ... Fruit: Spherical burr-like, spiky. The fruits are with slender beaks. Leaves: Floating stems (up to 2 metres long) often producing parallel lines in rivers and streams. Some leaves are erect, emerging out of the water. Perennial.

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Floating Bur-reed

Flower: Globular, spiky green flowerheads. Short-stalked. Fruit: Green, spiky and ball-shaped. Leaves: An aquatic plant which grows inside water up to 2.5 metres deep. The leaves are flat and grass-like. They are keeled and normally inflated at their bases. Perennial.

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Least Bur-reed

Flower: Rounded, spiky flowerheads. Fruit: Green, globular, beaked and spiky. Leaves: Flat, linear, grass-like leaves. Similar to Floating Bur-reed (Sparganium angustifolium) but with narrower leaves and barely inflated at the base. The leaves are usually found floating on the surface ...

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Celery-leaved Buttercup

Flower: Petals are not notched. 5 sepals. Many stamens. Up to 1cm wide. Fruit: Fruits take the form of an elongated head. Leaves: An annual flower with alternate leaves along the stems. Shiny dark green, palmately lobed leaves. The leaves on the stems are narrower.

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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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Water Chickweed

Flower: 5 deeply notched petals. Flowers reach up to 1.5cm across. This species of Chickweed is best identified by its 10 bluish-coloured stamens. 5 styles. Fruit: An oval capsule. Leaves: A straggling perennial flower with fleshy, oval and pointed leaves. The leaves are sometimes wavy-edged and the lower leaves are stalked. The leaves are without hairs on the undersides but they are st...

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