Marsh helleborine
The Marsh helleborine is a beautiful orchid of fens, wet grassland and dune slacks. Growing in profusion in places, look for reddish stems and white-and-pink flowers.
The Marsh helleborine is a beautiful orchid of fens, wet grassland and dune slacks. Growing in profusion in places, look for reddish stems and white-and-pink flowers.
The delicate, tube-like, violet-blue flowers of Skullcap bloom from June to September in damp places, such as marshes, fens, riverbanks and pond margins.
As its name suggests, Water dock likes damp places, such as the egdes of canals, ponds and rivers. It is a tall plant with large, greenish flower spikes.
The Welsh poppy is a plant of damp and shady places, roadsides and hillsides. It is also a garden escapee. It flowers over summer, attracting nectar-loving insects.
The water scorpion is not a true scorpion, but it certainly looks like one! An underwater predator, it uses its front pincer-like legs to catch its prey. Its tail actually acts as a kind of '…
Elegant, airy woodlands of silver-barked birches found across the northern uplands. Often transient in feel, with scattered trees growing over the heathy field layer of the surrounding moorland,…
Ground-elder was likely introduced into the UK by the Romans and has since become naturalised. A medium-sized umbellifer, it is an invasive weed of shady places, gardens and roadsides.
Despite its name, Ground-ivy is actually a member of the dead-nettle family. It is a clump-forming, aromatic plant that likes woodlands, hedgerows and damp places.
A notoriously poisonous plant, hemlock produces umbrella-like clusters of white flowers in summer. It can be found in damp places, such as ditches, riverbanks and waste ground.
With a silvery body, and purple, pink and bluish streaks down its flanks, the rainbow trout lives up to its name. Popular with anglers, it is actually an introduced species in the UK.
A handsome fish, the tench has olive-green flanks, powerful fins and distinctive red eyes. It can be found in lowland lakes and slow-flowing rivers around the UK.
A low-growing plant of sand dunes, heaths and grassy places, Common centaury is in bloom over summer. Look for clusters of pretty, pink, five-petalled flowers.