Thursday, August 12, 2010

Roadside Flowers

May I ask the Group Mind: Can you help me identify these common roadside wildflowers from County Cork, Ireland?

12 comments:

Steve said...

Number five looks like purple vetch, sometimes called cow vetch.

Unknown said...

3 seems very much like a Fuchsia, an easy I.D. with it's characteristic wasp-waist and heavy black anther lobes/stigma.

In my ignorance I can only guess that 4 could be a mallow, a cranes-bill, or some kind of rose...

Are #s 5 and 10 bell heather and heather, respectively?

7 might be golden-samphire

http://www.irishwildflowers.ie/ seems like a site that could help confirm things for those better versed in wildflowers.

Annelotte Fellinger said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Annelotte Fellinger said...

I know these names in Dutch only, so I looked up the latin names:

#1 is Ranunculus arvensis
#3 is fuchsia
#5 is some sort of Vicia (cracca maybe?)
#10 is indeed heather
and #6 might be heather too, but difficult to see (did you collect leaves too? that would make it heaps easier)
#4 some sort of Pelargonium? would have te see the leaves though.

Unknown said...

#1 Buttercup
#3 Fuchsia
#5 Vetch

I wish I knew more about Irish wildflowers!

sarah meredith said...

we have #5 on my farm in upstate NY and have always called it "wild lupine" - but maybe it is vetch, although there is also something on the rosier side with more of a rounded flower which we call vetch. and #4 looks like some kind of wild rose. #10 - heather, to be sure, and #3 does look like a fuchsia - how nice it must be to find that growing wild at the roadside!

Don Cox said...

Very hard without the leaves and some idea of the overall shape of the plant.

1.Some kind of buttercup - but there are many flowers with five yellow petals
2.Bog Bean
3.Fuchsia, a garden plant
4.Sweet Pea
5.Tufted vetch
6.
7.Ragwort
8. Tormentil, Potentilla erecta
9.probably gorse or broom
10.heather

Don Cox said...

Good books - there are two both by Fitter and Blamey. Both seem to be out of print but there are lots of used copies of the older one (which I use) on amazon.co.uk

Useful web site.

Kate Higgins said...

#4 looks like a "Wild Irish Rose" but without leaves it's hard to tell, #1 is buttercup..the invasive kind, # 3 is Fuchsia but the perennial kind, not the annual kind and #10 is definitely Heather. I've got relatives in County Cork...somewhere. Although with a name like Kathleen Higgins, I've probably got relatives everywhere in Ireland.

Tyler J said...

So cool that those with the expertise are jumping in, as per usual (it's one of the highlights of this blog, aside from the whole Gurney contribution).

This might be a simpleton question, but have you tried asking at one of the pubs? Seems like there would be an expert enjoying a pint that could tell you loads about the fauna there.

James Gurney said...

Tyler, and all: yes, I'm grateful (and impressed) with all the botanical knowledge behind the comments. Sorry I didn't include more leaves.

I did bring the sketchbook to a pub, but opened it at the wrong angle and all the flowers fell on the dark floor. I gathered them up the best I could and arranged them again. My goal is to glue them down and write in all the names ye have given me.

Leeann H said...

1. Buttercup
2. Heather
3. Fuschia
4. Wild Rose
7. Dandelion
9. Firbush
10. Lavender

The other names escape me, but I hope the rest are right!

- Leeann, County Meath