Wildflowers and Trees

Wood Anemone - Anemone nemorosa

Flowers: March to May

A member of the buttercup family, the solitary star like flowers of Wood Anemone are very common across Britain, mostly in deciduous woodland, like Whalley Moor Woodland. A small patch can be found flowering in early spring if you turn onto the path first left from the Fell View entrance and follow the path round to the first bend.  

It is a perennial, native to the UK which has a lovely white flower tinged with pink inside and marked with purple outside. The fruits are nut-like and contain a single seed.

Dog’s Mercury - Mercurialis perennis

Flowers: February to May

Dog’s Mercury is the common name for Mercurialis perennis, a flower of the Spurge family which is abundant in woodland and on shady hedgebanks and verges across Britain. Its presence is often a sign of an ancient woodland although it can colonise new deciduous woods very quickly. It frequently can be found alongside bluebells. 

Its flowers, which appear in the spring, are small, green, and inconspicuous and it is an unusual plant in that the male and female flowers are on separate plants. The leaves are large, long-pointed, and oval-shaped with toothed edges. The name Dog’s Mercury has nothing to do with the pet – it is in fact toxic to humans and animals including dogs. It is similar but unrelated to lesser-known plants in the ‘mercury’ family and is called Dog’s Mercury because of its ‘bad’ or poisonous properties, unlike 'annual mercury', which was a folk medicine.

One of the biggest patches of Dog’s Mercury in Whalley Moor Woodland is in the Fell View area but it can be found in other areas of the site, often betraying its presence by its fetid smell, the purpose of which is to attract midges which pollinate the female flowers.

Lesser Celandine - Ranunculus ficaria

Flowers: February to May

Lesser Celandine is part of the buttercup family of flowers. It has a beautiful yellow flower, which one of the first flowers to appear in spring. Each flower has 8-12 petals and three sepals and it was so admired by William Wordsworth that he wrote a poem about it. 

It has dark green heart-shaped leaves on long stalks and produces a fruiting head containing numerous fruits, each containing two seeds. It is an abundant native perennial that can be found, often in large numbers, throughout the UK and Ireland. It is present all around Whalley Moor Woodland. 

Goat Willow - Salix caprea

Flowers: March to April, before the leaves

On the left-hand side of the path as you enter Whalley Moor Woodland from Fell View are some Goat Willow trees which are known in particular for flourishing in damp places. In April, the tree displays impressive golden egg-shaped catkins (the male flowers) which produce copious amounts of powdery yellow pollen for bees to feed on and to attract other insects.

The longer greenish-white female catkins grow on separate trees. The bark is smooth and grey and the oval leaves are short pointed and edged with small teeth - dark grey-green on top and woolly beneath.

Hawthorn - Crataegus monogyna

Flowers: Late April to June

Both the Hawthorn and Blackthorn are very thorny shrubs, or small trees that are part of the rose family. They are abundant in hedgerows, scrubland and woodland throughout Britain. The best way to identify the two species in spring is that Blackthorn blossoms from March before its leaves start to show, whereas Hawthorn blossoms later in mid-May, after the leaves have emerged. The Hawthorn is therefore sometimes called 'Maythorn'. 

The white flower heads have a sickly sweet scent. It has lobed leaves and its fleshy fruit, called the Haw, turns a dark wine-red in Autumn. Each fruit contains a single seed. In winter the Haws provide food for many birds. Hawthorn is present across the whole site of Whalley Moor Woodland. 

Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa

Flowers: Late March to May

This picture was taken on Turkey Lane just over the fence from Whalley Moor Woodland. Like the Hawthorn it can form into an unapproachable thicket, providing valuable protection to other plants growing beneath it and to nesting birds. The Blackthorn leaf is elliptical in shape, and its white flowers have five petals and red-tipped anthers.

The abundant deep purple fruit, known as sloes, can be made into jam and wine, or used to flavour gin.

Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale

Flowers: March to October (peaks April to May)

Whilst, as one of the most common weeds in Britain, the Dandelion is a constant source of annoyance to gardeners, growing wild it is a beautiful plant and its sun-like flower heads bloom early in the year when little else is on show. It is therefore a valuable source of food to a variety of pollinators.

The leaves have sharp pointed lobes resembling the teeth of a lion giving the flower its common name. Dan-delion is a corruption of the French words dent de lion or 'lion's tooth'.

The flower-heads contain up to 200 individual florets which close up at night or if the weather is dull. The fruiting head is a large downy 'clock' made up of many tiny ribbed fruits each with its own small white-haired parachute and generations of children have 'told the time' by counting the puffs needed to blow them away - unwittingly helping the plant to disperse its seeds.

In the past, dandelion drinks and broths were recommended for a variety of illnesses, from jaundice to consumption. Even today, the plant has its uses due to leaves having a high content of vitamins A and C which when young are tasty in salads. In addition, wine can be made from the florets and the dried and ground roots can be used a a coffee substitute.

Cleavers - Galium aparine

Flowers: April to September

A native member of the Bedstraw family, Cleavers is often a familiar weed in gardens throughout the UK and is certainly abundant, scrambling and sprawling, all over Whalley Moor Woodland. It is sometimes known as Sticky-weed as the bristly leaves and stems cling to clothing leading to hours of endless fun for children to cover their friends in.  

Another name for it is Goosegrass because it is a favourite food of geese, and a third name is Scurvygrass as the plant was used in the treatment of scurvy and other diseases of the skin. It is a relative of coffee and quinine so it is not surprising it was used for medicinal purposes. At one time it was roasted as a substitute for coffee and the young shoots are also edible and can picked in Spring and cooked in soups as a vegetable. 

Cleavers develops tiny white flowers which has parts arranged in fours, and the green or purplish fruits are two fused nutlets with numerous hooked bristles.

Herb Robert - Geranuim robertianum

Flowers: April to October

There are patches of Herb Robert around the old station 

platform near the Fell View entrance to the wood but it can also be found in other areas around the wood.

It is very widespread throughout the UK and is a member of the Crane's-bill family. The leaves are fern-like cut into three to five leaflets and the pink flower has rounded petals. The fruit is slightly wrinkled but the seed is smooth. The whole plant may turn a beautiful red particularly in autumn or when the plant is growing in dry exposed conditions. 

In fact the 'robert' part of the plant's name is believed to be a corruption of the Latin ruber meaning red; although it may have derived from the name of Robert, an early Duke of Normandy, for whom a celebrated medieval medical treatise was written. In some areas the plant has been given the name 'Stinking Bob' because its leaves produce a strong disagreeable odour. 

Garlic Mustard - Alliaria petiolata

Flowers: April to June

Also known colloquially as Jack-By-The-Hedge, this plant favours moist lightly shaded spots in hedgrows or woodland margins. The cutting in Whalley Moor Woodland is a good place to find it. As the name suggests it faintly smells of garlic when the leaves are crushed and can make a tasty condiment. In the 17th century it was recommended as a flavouring for salt fish. 

Garlic Mustard is actually a member of the Cabbage family. All other plants that smell like it, such as leeks, onions and garlic itself, are members of an entirely unrelated family, that of lily (Allium).

It is a biennial plant, so takes two years to complete its life-cycle. It grows young leaves in its first season, which it keeps over winter, and then flowers in the spring of its second year.

It is a tall plant with distinctive kidney-shaped leaves which are small and hairless. Its small white flowers have four petals in the shape of a cross and grow in clusters at the end of the stems. They give off a rather unpleasant aroma which attracts midges and hoverflies.

In June, the pale green caterpillar of the orange tip butterfly can be found feeding on the long green seed-pods, from which it can hardly be distinguished.

Ramsons (Wild Garlic) - Allium ursinum

Flowers: April to June

Ramsons grows in woods and shady places throughout Britain and Whalley Moor Woodland is a good spot to find several large dense patches, particularly by the paths on the way to the cutting.

The name 'ramsons' is very similar to that used in Germany and some Scandinavian countries - rams - and it is probably derived from an older word meaning 'rank'. This refers to the odour and strong flavour the plant imparts to the milk of any cow that eats it. 

The leaves come first in spring and this is the best time to use it, chopped and cooked to flavour dishes and sauces, or just snipped raw into butter, green salads and sandwiches. The flavour is much less fierce than the cultivated variety.

By the time the single flower head appears, a cluster of up to twenty delicate white stars, the leaves are leathery and not worth eating. 

Common Dog Violet - Viola riviniana

Flowers: Mid March to May

A few isolated examples of Common Dog Violet can be found on the banks by the side of the cutting. As the name suggests this is the commonest of the six types of violet to be found in the UK. 

Dog, in this context, is a derogatory term that is often used for wild flowers to distinguish an inferior form from relatives that are superior in some way. (Dog rose is another example - a rose that is not cultivated in gardens).

The leaves are heart-shaped and the mauve flowers have a white throat and dark branched veins. Common Dog Violet has a triangular seed capsule that opens to shed its seeds before falling from the plant. 

Greater Stitchwort - Stellaria holostea

Flowers: Late March to June

This is a native perennial abundant across Britain which provides a lovely show in spring time, particularly when growing alongside Bluebells, as it does in the Fell View side of Whalley Moor Woodland. 

The leaves are narrow and pointed, often grey-green and stalkless. The flowers have 5 petals split about half-way to the base. The fruit is a globe-shaped capsule on an upright stalk.

The stems of the plant are very weak, needing the support of surrounding vegetation to reach any height, and they snap easily at the point where the leaves are attached.

According to the ancient 'doctrine of signatures' (a theory that purportedly explains how humans discovered the medicinal uses of some plants), easily snapping stems must mean the plant can help to heal broken bones. the Greek words holos and osteon that make up part of the botanical name mean 'whole' and 'bone'.

More generally the use of the word 'wort' in a plant's common name is given to plants that have long been considered to be beneficial. In the case of stitchwort, this refers to the plant being used to ease 'stitches' in the side and similar pains. A preparation of stitchwort and acorns taken in wine was a standard remedy. 

Bluebells - Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Flowers: Late April to June

Bluebells are an iconic and instantly recognisable flower, that is locally abundant in deciduous woodland and along shady banks and hedgerows. There are a number of patches in Whalley Moor Woodland but it provides a particularly beautiful show where it grows alongside the Greater Stitchwort in the Fell View side.

The flowers typically all hang downwards and each is made up of up to 6 tepals that form a parallel-sided tube, with the tepals strongly curved out and down at the tips. In native bluebells the blooms hang to one side of the flower spike. The flowers have a strong, sweet scent. The flower stems are surrounded at the base by long, strap-shaped leaves. The fruit capsule splits into three segments when ripe, releasing black seeds.

The Spanish Bluebell was introduced to gardens in Britain from Iberia in the 17th century and has since has been spreading to the wild, especially close to habitation. It is very like the native bluebell except the flower spike is erect and not 1-sided. The flowers are also more bell-shaped and broaden towards the mouth.

There is also a Hybrid Bluebell, a cross between Bluebell and Spanish Bluebell, but usually closer to the Spanish Bluebell.

This is a plant that can commonly found in hedgebanks, woodland and other shady places and is present in a number of different areas across Whalley Moor Woodland. 

It has a very distinctive large pale green 'cowl' (the spathe) surrounding the upright pencil-like spadix. 

The Spadix gives off a smell of decay which, together with its slight heat, attracts flies. The insects crawl down inside the spathe and are trapped by the backward pointing hairs on the spadix. They then crawl around pollinating the flowers.

In late summer it develops very conspicuous red berries from the fertilised female flowers. These are extremely poisonous.

Because of its shape, it has various other local names such as 'sweethearts', 'Adam and Eve', and  'Cuckoo Pint'.

On the path into the wood from the Fell View entrance there is a very fine example of a mature Horse Chesnut tree. The tree's bark is smooth when young, then scaly and flaking.

It has very large leaves and large white flowers which are carried in conspicuous upright 'candles', and the fruits contain large glossy brown seeds, the well-known 'conkers' - the name derives from 'conqueror' as they are used for the game which has been played since the 18th century.

The conkers give the tree its American name of 'buck-eye-, as the chesnuts are said to resemble the eye of a deer.

Wood Avens, also known a Herb Bennet, is common in the light shade of deciduous woodland and can be found throughout Whalley Moor Woodland. It is can also be commonly found in gardens where it is less popular.

In the 15th century, the plant used to be hung over doors to stop the Devil crossing the threshold for it was considered to be one of the most powerful charms against evil spirits. These magical powers attributed to the plant seemed to have derived from its association with St.Benedict (or Bennet), founder of the Benedictine order of monks.

It is a member of the rose family and its yellow flowers with 5 well separated petals and green sepals clearly visible between them, is characteristic of some other members of this family.

The related Water Avens is widespread in ditches and wet ground. There is also a common hybrid, where both Wood Avens and Water Avens are present in the same area, which produces a variety of offspring. 

There are 14 different types of vetch that can be found in the UK. Whilst some are very scarce, Bush Vetch is oner of the most common. It most easily found near the Fell View entrance and in the cutting. 

As a member of the pea family, its most obvious characteristics are its branched tendrils, leaves divided into numerous leaflets and flowers born in long heads, and long seed pods. 

The Speedwell family is another large one in Britain and Ireland, with Germander Speedwell being one of 15, and perhaps the most vibrantly coloured. It is very common on Springtime verges and the margins of woods such as Whalley Moor Woodland, and very prominent due to its bright blue flowers with a white 'eye', hence one of its alternative names being 'birds-eye speedwell'.

Most explanations of the name 'speedwell' refer to the medicinal value attributed to some species of the plant. Among other uses, they were supposed to be good for healing wounds and clearing up respiratory complaints.

The leafless spikes of tiny delicate white flowers of Enchanter's Nightshade appear a little later in the season but from June large patches of them can be seen in abundance in the wood, standing out against the shade. It is a member of the Willowherb family and very common.

The Anglo-Saxons had used the plant - which they calleed Aelfthone - as a protections against spells cast by elves.

Lush, ancient and primitive, ferns are magnificent non-flowering plants that reproduce via spores. They are a common sight in woods including Whalley Moor Woodland, as many species are shade tolerant and can grow year round, bringing some welcome green to cooler months.

Bramble is a very abundant and thorny shrub in the woodland. The white or pink flowers are beloved of butterflies and the fruits, blackberries, beloved by human foragers.

According to old folklore, blackberries should not be eaten after Michaelmas (September 29th) because the Devil spits on them. The advice is sound as the fruits become mushy about this time; but the miscreant which spits on them is not the Devil but the flesh-fly, which dribbles saliva on to the berries and is then able to suck up the juice.

Hedge Woundwort is part of the family Lamiaceae (dead-nettles, mints etc.). It is common in woodland all over the country and can be found in various parts of Whalley Moor Woodland. Its flowers are in whorls, reddish-purple blotched white, and the leaves nettle-like. They have a strong unpleasant smell when bruised. 

Since the days of the ancient Greeks, woundworts have been used to treat  wounds to stem bleeding. Modern experiments have shown that the volatile il contained in hedge woundwort does indeed have antiseptic qualities.

Hedge Bindweed is another very common plant in woodland and it is a rampant climber. It properly reveals itself a little later in the season as the large trumpet-shaped white flowers emerge, which stay open into the night (all night if there is a moon) and when dawn comes, they live up to their West Country name of morning glory.

Although scentless, they attract the convolvulous hawk moth, which uses its long tongue to extract the nectar secreted at the base of the flower. At the same time this pollinates the plant.

Buttercups are in the same family as Lesser Celandine and Wood Anemone. There are a number of different species of buttercup in the UK, with the Creeping and Meadow varieties being the most common. As the name suggests, Creeping Buttercup spreads (very quickly) through runners setting off in all directions  and putting down roots and developing clusters of leaves every few inches.

There are no prizes for recognising the Common Nettle which is very common in a wide range of habitats not the least damp woods like Whalley Moor Woodland.

Mankind has needed, used and hated the Stinging Nettle since prehistoric times and it is our friend in the wood in terms of its patch-forming qualities which can crowd out the invasive Himalyan Balsam.

It is the enemy of the gardener, the farmer, and of children's bare knees and yet through the centuries it has also been used for cloth, food, and medicine.

The mechanism that causes the stings is simple: on being touched, the tip of each hair breaks off and releases an acid which causes a painful rash.

This plant is locally common and likes shady places in woods. It can be found along the cutting in Whalley Moor Woodland. It has bright yellow, cup shaped flowers and broad rounded leaves. Its creeping stems are low to the ground.

The Onagraceae or Willowherb family has at least 3 of its members in abundance in Whalley Moor Woodland - Enchanter's Nightshade (see above); Rosebay Willowherb, and Great Willowherb. The latter is a very tall plant, with large purplish-pink flowers. It is able to spread by means of fleshy stems growing just under the surface, and forms big, dense stands, which exclude and obliterate other plants. The flowers are usually pollinated by hoverflies or bees.

Hogweed is a common sight on roadsides and in hedgerows, woods and grassy places throughout Britain. It is present in Whalley Moor Woodland itself and also in the field next to Calder Vale entrance to the wood. It is a summer-flowering umbellifer with white flowers on large flat (or slightly convex) flower-heads.

It is the most common species of the parsley family. Until fairly recently, hogweed was gathered for opig fodder, which gave rise to its common name.

The giant hogweed - and, to a lesser extent, common hogweed - contains a volatile substance which sensitises the skin and which can lead to blisters, especially in very hot weather. Both plants should therefore be traeted with caution.

There is lots of Knapweed in the field next to the Calder Vale entrance to the wood. 'Knap' means knob and is is so named because of the shape of its rather thistle-like flowers and their blackish patterning is responsible for the species name of nigra, Latin for black.

It is very common in the UK in all types of rough grassland.

According to folklore, knapweed can be used to tell a maiden's future. A girl must pick the expanded florets off a flower-head, the put the remainder of the flower-head inside her blouse. After an hour she should take it out again and examine it: if the previously unexpanded florets have now blossomed, it is a sure sign that the man she will marry is shortly coming her way.

You can find some Nipplewort down in the cutting of Whalley Moor Woodland. It is a tall well-branched and leafy plant, with loosely-branched clusters of small, pale yellow flowers on slender stalks. The name refers to the nipple-like flower buds and its naming led to the ancient belief that the plant would cure sore or ulcerated nipples.

It is a native plant which is known to have been growing in Britain in Stone Age times.

The flower-heads only open for part of the day, closing in the middle of the afternoon and not opening at all in bad weather. Bees and flies pollinate the flowers.

Meadowsweet is very common in a wide variety of damp habitats, such as wet woodland rides,  roadside ditches, and the cutting in Whalley Moor Woodland.

The tiny flowers are gathered in frothy, creamy-white clusters and are heavily scented. The leaves are dark-green above and pale green to silvery below, cut into pairs of oval toothed leaflets that alternate with several tiny leaflets.

The plant's name is a corruption of an older name, medesweete, given because the plant was used to flavour mead,the Anglo-Saxon drink made from fermented honey. In medieval times an infusion of meadowsweet was used to ease pain, to calm fevers and to induce sweating, for the sap contains chemicals of the same group as salicyclic acid, an ingredient of aspirin.

Ragwort is a striking plant, with dark green leaves and yellow, daisy-like flowers. It is seen as a pest by farmers as it can be poisonous to livestock. There is a small amount of Ragwort near to the Fell View entrance.

The common name refers to the cut or ragged-looking leaves. St.James, the patron saint of horses, is remembered in the species name, jacobaea. It was once mistakenly believed that an infusion made from the plant, and administered in small doses, provided a cure for stggers, a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord of horses.

Pignut is a widely present member of the Parsley family, found in deciduous woodland as well as other habitats across Britain. It has a very slender stem with leaves cut into long, narrow strap-shaped lobes. The stems grow from a single dark brown tuber - hence the name.

Pignuts are one form of food growing wild in Britain that is still available for gathering. Pigs can smell the nuts, and they were once trained to nuzzle them out for human consumption, just as they are still taught to unearth truffles in France.