meadow and wood

An outbreak of Woolly Thistle (Cirsium eriophorum), a common plant in the bit of England I live in and one of the highlights of every August. [But - 31st May 2011 - just seen two small plants in bloom on the Chippenham by-pass - I suppose an effect of plant damage due to mowing.]



Homing in. The flowers were as usual attended by numerous besotted insects who were very patient subjects.



Fairy flax (Linum catharticum), now in a diminutively dessicated phase of its existence, buried among taller growth. Blurry ultra-closeup below.




Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), an unfairly neglected contributor to August colour.

Then I walked into the wood and tried to photograph the grasses, but I was mainly defeated by the chequered backgrounds, so I haven't troubled you e.g with any of my worthless studies of Poa nemoralis, a plant that disappears when photographed. I begin to understand why there are not many good photos of grasses on the internet...


Giant Fescue (Festuca gigantea) with close-up showing blade, auricles and node.



False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) with closeups of blade/ligule and node. After taking these I went back into the meadow and got on with studying XenApp 5.0.