Roadside Wildflower Biodiversity

Can wild flower varieties be called wild flowers if they have been planted by man?

In the last couple of years Swansea has been allowing various roadside verges and common areas of land to grow unhindered by grass cutting and has thrown a range wild flower seeds into the mix with a view to promoting biodiversity (and perhaps saving some money at the same time).

The results have been widely popular and most people have thoroughly enjoyed seeing these jewels by the roadside. The birds and the bees like it too, I suspect!

Roadside wildflowers

 

Roadside wildflowers

Roadside wildflowers

Walking Among the Flowers

Cow Parsley and Columbine – my StillWalks production along the “Floral Walk” at Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire, Wales last Summer ended back in the car park which hidden in a clearing in the woods.

The walk was beautiful and the only thing that interrupted the peacefulness of the place was the intermittent sound of jet fighters flying overhead on exercises! As soon as I finish the video I will make it available on the StillWalks website and it may need to include the sound of those jet planes in places!

Pembrey Wildflowers

Pembrey Wildflowers

Playing Soldiers and Marking Time – Pembrey Seed Heads

We used to have games of “soldiers” with these Ribwort Plantains when we were young – trying in turn to knock the head off each others “soldier”. Perhaps decapitate would be a more accurate term!

And of course everyone tells the time by the Dandelion seed head – what other way is there to do it?

Plantain

Dandelion

Pembrey Pine

Flowers come in all shapes and sizes, colours and combinations – every plant has its own form. To my mind, the less flamboyant flowers of a pine are no less attractive than those with beautifully coloured petals.

Pembrey Pine

Pembrey Pine Flower

Beauty in Age

Maybe it’s just me but I find these dying daffodils still hold their beauty. It is just different to when they were young.

Dying Daffodils