Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Palustris on April 11, 2021, 01:25:39 PM

Title: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Palustris on April 11, 2021, 01:25:39 PM: We think this is a pale form of Cardamine pratensis. What say you?
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Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Tristan_He on April 11, 2021, 02:44:50 PM: Hi Palustris, yes I agree. The flowers range from white to a sort of pinkish-purple.
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Palustris on April 11, 2021, 02:54:25 PM: Thanks. Our Wild flower book only shows it as being much redder than this so we were a bit unsure,especially as the leaves are so well hidden in the undergrowth.
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Tristan_He on April 11, 2021, 04:27:51 PM: I think its very pretty, well worth encouraging in grass (e.g. in the sort of meadow areas where you might grow Crocus and Fritillaria). Also the main foodplant of the orange tip butterfly, so double ornamental value.
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Palustris on April 11, 2021, 04:33:52 PM: I grow some of the other Cardamine specie, but not this one. This was in the bank alongside one of the lanes near where we live.
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: JohnnyD on April 12, 2021, 04:13:43 PM: We always called it 'mayflower'. JohnnyD
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Maggi Young on April 12, 2021, 06:28:41 PM: Quote from: JohnnyD on April 12, 2021, 04:13:43 PM
We always called it 'mayflower'. JohnnyD
I know Craetagus monogynus as the "May Flower" ! Fascinating about the wide use of common names for different plants, isn't it?!
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Gail on April 12, 2021, 10:04:58 PM: We call it lady's smock or cuckoo flower - as it is meant to flower at the same time as the cuckoo arrives (sadly don't get some many cuckoos now to put that to the test). It grows wild in some of the verges round here. I love it, particularly because as Tristan says, it is good for the orange tip butterflies. I've just bought a plant of the double form from Rumbling Bridge Nursery (along with Anemone sylvestris ‘Flore Pleno’, another good cottage garden plant).
Title: Re: Hedgerow flower id.
Post by: Tristan_He on April 12, 2021, 11:24:24 PM: Double form no good for orange tips though sadly Gail - the caterpillars eat the developing seed pods. But still very pretty.