A Botanical Journey mostly from Kent & SE England

This walk was exactly a week after I had a serious heart operation. Following it, I had been feeling very rough with the sensation that someone with big boots had stamped repeatedly on my chest! Having said that, this day was the first where I felt good. My heart rythm was normal, I had rosy cheeks and the weather was warm and springlike, I must now be better. Provided I took things easy I thought it would be nice to visit my local woods to see the springtime flowers. These woods were on a steep hillside, but I took it easy and photographed some flowers along the way. It felt vry good to be out and about again. Below are some naturalised garden Grape Hyacinths surrounded by Lesser Celandines. Muscari armeniacum Another common garden escape is Green Alkanet, with its bright blue flowers that I found by a road verge on the way to the woods. Pentaglottis sempervirens In my last blog, the Cherry Plum was in flower. Now however, those were fading and the main tr...

This was my last day out before I was scheduled to have heart surgery and the plants I would find  gave me some peace from the constant mental worries churning through my head at this time.   First stop was the seaside car park at St. Margaret's Bay, accessed by going down the steep chalk cliffs through a series of very sharp hairpin bends. Alexanders is very common in the coastal areas of Kent and was now in peak flowering form in several areas of the car park and cliffs. Smyrnium olusatrum Sea Mayweed decorated the edge of the car park within the spray zone of the sea front. It looks very similar to its inland cousin, Scentless Mayweed, but has fleshy leaves in comparison. Tripleurospermum maritimum Musk Storksbill is spreading rapidly through the county and I have seen it in numerous places in north Kent. It's now spreading along the coast as well. It's generally much bigger than Common Storksbill, with ve...

I was still suffering ill health at this time and could not walk far from the car.  As churchyards are often great places for wildflowers I thought I would visit a local one and see what Spring flowers might be up there. Perhaps one of the commonest Spring flowers seen is the humble Lesser Celandine, and there were fine displays of them here as well with each flower reflecting the sun's golden rays back to any person caring to admire them. On cloudy or wet days they stay firmly closed as Wordsworth noticed! Wordsworth wrote a poem about this plant. Here's a paragraph from it, though you can view the entire poem by searching for it on the internet, it's quite long! " There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine, That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain; And, the first moment that the sun may shine, Bright as the sun himself, ’tis out again !".  Ficaria verna Another common Spring wildflower is the Red Dead-Nettle. While they are small flo...