Showing posts with label Iris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iris. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 May 2020
Monsieur B'Stard's Iris
The Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus) was just coming into bloom today at St Aidan's (VC64), and included a clump of the unusual primrose yellow form. This is named var. bastardii, for Toussaint Bastard a 19th Century French doctor and botanist. According to Wikipedia, at least forty other plants are similarly blessed with a name dedicated to Monsieur Bastard. His love of botany was ultimately his cause of death, due to a fall trying to pick a fern at the top of a rock. A lesson for us all!
Sunday, 26 June 2016
Pale and Interesting
St Aidan's is still throwing up surprises and today was no exception with this unusually pale-flowered form of Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus var. bastardii). I was going to make a joke of the unfortunate name until I realised it was likely named to honour the French botanist Toussaint Bastard.
I was even more pleased with my find when I realised it was just inside VC64, Until the recent update of the relevant OS map it wasn't clear that this waterbody was wholly in VC64.
I was even more pleased with my find when I realised it was just inside VC64, Until the recent update of the relevant OS map it wasn't clear that this waterbody was wholly in VC64.
Saturday, 18 July 2015
Thorp Arch and Boston Spa
I had a productive day today working to increase the number of records for this VC64 hectad, in support of the Atlas 2020 project.
The top find for me had to be Pale Pink-sorrel (Oxalis incarnata), as I had not come across this before. A few plants of this introduced annual were found by the riverside path in Boston Spa.
Thorp Arch churchyard provided the yellow-flowered form of Gladdon or (rather unfairly) Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima var. citrina)
Several locations provided Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus ssp. pubens). This subspecies is thought to be of hybrid origin and it is relatively widespread in VC64 despite the general absence of one of its putative parents - Greater Burdock (Arctium lappa).
I then took a trip over to Thorp Arch Trading Estate where I knew there were some small relict areas of species-rich calcareous grassland. This proved well worth the trip with the grassland in peak bloom.
Some of the plants seen include Dark Mullein (Verbascum nigrum), Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) and Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata).
The top find for me had to be Pale Pink-sorrel (Oxalis incarnata), as I had not come across this before. A few plants of this introduced annual were found by the riverside path in Boston Spa.
Thorp Arch churchyard provided the yellow-flowered form of Gladdon or (rather unfairly) Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima var. citrina)
Several locations provided Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus ssp. pubens). This subspecies is thought to be of hybrid origin and it is relatively widespread in VC64 despite the general absence of one of its putative parents - Greater Burdock (Arctium lappa).
I then took a trip over to Thorp Arch Trading Estate where I knew there were some small relict areas of species-rich calcareous grassland. This proved well worth the trip with the grassland in peak bloom.
Some of the plants seen include Dark Mullein (Verbascum nigrum), Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) and Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata).
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