On your rambles this weekend … spare a thought for Dr Liam Lysaght, Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, who is spending the month of August cycling all around Ireland. He is visiting all sorts of wonderful wild places such as our national parks and meeting with dedicated individuals who are trying to help conserve and highlight issues relating to our natural world. His aim is to raise awareness of what is happening to our biodiversity and what we can all do to help preserve what we have. He deserves a medal for his commitment. Then ... in order to support and contribute to the collection of data which we so badly need .... could you please look out for and record these three wildflower species – they would seem to be under-recorded so when you find them, please send your records to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. The three species are in bloom at present and are: SNOWBERRY, WOOD SAGE and WILD THYME. SNOWBERRY … this is an unremarkable shrub, introduced from N. America, which forms large thickets by its spreading suckers. Around about now, you should find it bearing tiny pink, funnel-shaped flowers and in autumn it has round white berries – the clue is in the name! It seems to be pretty widespread, with the exception of parts of the West. It is on the list of Invasive Aliens with a status of ‘Potentially invasive’ and YOUR records would be extremely helpful in seeing just how invasive it is. WOOD SAGE … is a small to medium plant which has one-sided spikes of yellow-green flowers from July to September. Each little one-lipped flower has maroon-coloured anthers and heart-shaped, wrinkled, downy leaves. It is usually found on acid soil, dry places, hills, mountainsides and woodland. It doesn’t seem to be so common in the centre of Ireland. Can YOU help to update the records please? WILD THYME … is more commonly found in coastal regions and is a very pretty, low-growing, spreading perennial with a strong scent when crushed. Mostly on dry grassland, coastal dunes and on heaths, it flowers from June to September. Numerous pink-purple, two-lipped flowers grow in dense heads on creeping stems. Two sides of the stems are hairy, two sides are almost hairless. The leaves are oval, untoothed and hairy. If YOU come across it, please send in the record. If you have any difficulty identifying these or any other species, please go to ‘The Wildflowers of Ireland – A Field Guide’ for further help or log onto wildflowersofireland.net . When you are certain of your identification, please send your records to records.biodiversityireland.ie/
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:46:56 +0000
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