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...

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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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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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Silver Birch

Flower: Male yellow catkins hang loose, female catkins much shorter and erect. Often hybridizes with Downy Birch making identification somewhat difficult at times. Fruit: The female catkins develop hundreds of winged seeds as their fruit. Leaves: Deciduous. Stalked and triangular in shape with doubly serrated margins. Leaves turn yellow in autumn. Downy Birch leaves have got serrated margins only, not doubly serrated as with Silver Birch.

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Large Bittercress

Flower: 4 white petals which are very occasionally purple, up to 12mm wide. Flowers clustering together at the top of the plant. 6 stamens, purple anthers. Fruit: Long, thin, flat seed pods that eventually split open lengthwise. Leaves: Without a basal rosette, as with Hairy Bittercress and Wavy Bittercress. The basal leaves are long-stalked and the upper stem leaves are very short-stalked. The leaves run alternate along the stem and...

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Bittersweet

Flower: 5 bright purple bent back petals, anthers forming a bright yellow pointed cone, up to 1.5cm across. Sepals and stalks are also sometimes purple. Fruit: Clusters of round green berries, later turn yellow, orange or bright red. Leaves: Alternate, pointed and oval. Often with one or more pairs of basal ovate lobes, or leaflets at the base.

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Bogbean

Flower: The flowers of Bogbean are distinctive and star-shaped. They are held above the water inside dense, erect flower spikes. The flowers have white fringed petals and are covered in conspicuous white hair... Fruit: The fruit is a spherical, many-seeded capsule. Leaves: An aquatic perennial plant with leaves projecting to 30cm above the surface of the water in which it floats. Large trefoil leaves with broadly oval leaflets, similar in appearance to those of Broad Be...

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Black Bog-rush

Flower: Small, dark brown, flattened spikelets. Fruit: An achene surrounded by a hard white coating. Leaves: Thread-like, unbranched, erect and grows in tight clumps straight out of the ground. The leaves have inrolled margins.

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Alder Buckthorn

Flower: Star-shaped pale green or white flowers. Flowers are up to 4mm in diameter. 5 stamens. Fruit: Green berries, turning red, then later purplish-black. The berries ripen in September. Leaves: Alder Buckthorn is thornless (unlike other Buckthorns). Their leaves are untoothed and alternate along the branches. Each leaf has between 6 and 10 pairs of veins. The leaves turn yellow or red in aut...

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Purging Buckthorn

Flower: Greenish-yellow tiny flowers, unstalked, appearing in dense clusters. 4 petals. Male and female flowers appear on separate trees. Fruit: The female flowers turn into green berries, later turning purplish-black. Leaves: Deciduous. Oval, pointed and finely toothed. In autumn, the leaves turn yellow and brown.

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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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Columbine

Flower: Easily recognizable with its blue flowers, having 5 tubular petals with hooked spurs. The name Columbine is derived from the Latin name for dove 'columba' because from below, the petals are said to lo... Fruit: A dry pod which splits open upon ripening. Leaves: Green compound leaves with a bluish tinge, fan-like in appearance. The leaflets are round and notched.

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Cuckooflower

Flower: 4 petals, clustered, pale to dark lilac, seldom white, up to 2cm. Fruit: A long elongated dry capsule which eventually rolls up and explodes to disperse its many seeds. Leaves: A basal rosette of long-stalked leaves are present. The short-stalked stem leaves are alternate and pinnate. The 1 to 7 pairs of opposite leaflets and 1 terminal leaflet are all separated wide apart.

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Black Currant

Flower: 5 reddish crimson petals, hanging in clusters. Individual flowers up to 1.5cm. Fruit: Dark purple to black berries. Leaves: Deciduous. The leaves are simple, alternate, palmate with 5 lobes and serrated edges. Similar to Red Currant leaves but slightly larger and aromatic.

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Red Currant

Flower: Hanging clusters of yellowish-green flowers. Each flower is purple edged and about 5mm in diameter. Pollinated by bees. Fruit: Clusters of small, globular, red berries. The berries can be white but is rare. The many-seeded berries ripen in July and August. Leaves: 5-lobed leaves, spirally arranged up the stems.

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Dewberry

Flower: The white flowers are are up to 1 inch in diameter. Pollinated by insects. Fruit: Dull blue, fleshy, waxy berries consisting of many segments known as drupes (or drupelets). Dewberry may be confused with the much more common Blackberry plant, a.k.a. Bramble. The berries of the Dewb... Leaves: Alternate, trefoil and hairy leaves. Stalked and serrated. The branches of the Dewberry plant are more scrambling than those of Blackberry. The Blackberry is taller and more upright.

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Fairy Flax

Flower: Flowers have 5 unnotched, white, ovate petals, up to 1cm across. The centres of the flowers are yellow. Their stalks are long and thread-like. The flowers nod when in bud. 5 stamens. Similar looking t... Fruit: A 4-parted globular capsule. Leaves: Annual or biennial flower with small oblong leaves in opposite pairs. The leaves are typically green.

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Common Fleabane

Flower: Golden yellow daisy-like flowerheads upto 3cm across, flat-topped. 40-100 disc florets and 20-30 ray florets. Fruit: Dry, 1-seeded. Leaves: Silvery green leaves. Narrow, pointed, widest at the base, up to 8cm long. The alternate leaves are covered in a white down. The upper leaves look wrinkly.

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Water Forget-me-not

Flower: Clustered, pink flower buds, later becoming sky blue. 5 petals with yellow and white centres. Fruit: Small, 4-parted, egg-shaped, shiny black nutlets. Up to 2mm long. Leaves: Alternate, toothless leaves with pointed tips. The lowest leaves are the broadest and the upper leaves are more linear. The leaves are covered in short appressed hairs.

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Reed Canary Grass

Flower: 2-3 flowered spikelets, variable in colour from white to pale yellow or purple. Fruit: A one-seeded fruit (caryopsis). Leaves: Broad, flat, linear and alternate leaves, up to 2.5cm wide.

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Guelder Rose

Flower: 5 white petals, the outer ones being larger than the inner ones. Flowers appear in flat-topped clusters which resemble umbels. Fruit: Drooping clusters of scarlet red berries. Leaves: A deciduous shrub with similar-looking leaves to Maple. The leaves are deeply-lobed with 3 to 5 lobes. The leaves turn orange or red in autumn.

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Gypsywort

Flower: White, purple-dotted and appearing in whorls from the bases of the upper leaves. 4 petals. Fruit: A dry fruit (schizocarp) in 4 parts. Leaves: Oval leaves in opposite pairs along the erect stem. The leaves are mostly stalked and have deeply serrated margins. The leaves sometimes turn red or purple in autumn.

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Marsh Helleborine

Flower: Petals are crimson and white, on the inside and outside. The long ruffled lip has a yellow spot in the lower half and crimson streaks in the cup-shaped upper half. Fruit: A nodding, ribbed capsule containing many minute seeds. Leaves: Long and slender, alternate, stalkless leaves with parallel veins, tapering into a point. Leaf margins are toothless.

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Hemp Agrimony

Flower: Dense trusses of pale pink florets with long white styles and long purple-tipped bracts. Fruit: A 5-edged achene with a white pappus, 3mm long. Leaves: Palmate, opposite leaves, up to 10cm long, on reddish stems. 3 to 5 lanceolate leaflets. The leaves have toothed margins.

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Common Hemp-nettle

Flower: Pink flowers with lower lip, borne in whorls. Lower lip has darker markings in the centre. Similar in appearance to Bifid Hemp-nettle (Galeopsis bifida) but the only difference is that the lip of Bifi... Fruit: A 4-chambered schizocarp. Leaves: Pale green, stalked, elliptical leaves in opposite pairs. Blunt serrated leaf margins.

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