Tuesday 8 October 2013

Bristol Meadows in September 2013

Summer is coming to a close and so the flowers within our meadows will be shortly closing too. However there are still plenty of surprises waiting to be found, you just have to look a bit closer.........

Perennial Meadows

Our perennial meadows are on their last legs, the carrot (Daucus carota) has gone to seed so all that can be seen now is a sea of brown carrot seed heads.


However certain plants seem to be getting a second wind and can be seen in between the carrot.

Musk mallow (Malvus moschata) can be seen still flowering.
As can common knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
While most of the pollinators are gone you can still see the occasional bee or hoverfly and the meadows are being put to good use by other beasties as well. 

A male Bumble bee raising his leg to warn me off..............it was a male so it couldn't sting, but i wasn't willing to call his bluff!
A bumble bee on a viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), one of the plants coming back to life in our meadows.
The tall carrot stalks make excellent areas for spiders to spin their webs.

Annuals

While our perennial meadows might look a little worse for wear many of our annuals are still looking quite spectacular!

Red flax (Linum grandiflorum) and pot marigold (Callendula officinalis) are still thriving. 
Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) and Common poppy (Papaver rhoeas) can be seen flowering here among many others.
Two hoverflies are enjoying this Californian poppy. 
and this spider is enjoying a crane fly.

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