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:

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

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  2. 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.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. 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.

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  5. #1 Buttercup
    #3 Fuchsia
    #5 Vetch

    I wish I knew more about Irish wildflowers!

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  6. 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!

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  7. 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

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  8. 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.

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  9. #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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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

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