May flowers selection

Photos of a few of the plants in flower on our patch (and one off patch).

There are over 1200 flower-heads of Horseshoe Vetch at Ringstead Downs.
Good news for the Chalkhill Blue butterflies?

The earliest flowers of Long-stalked Crane's-bill at Ringstead Downs

 

A flower-head of Hound's-tongue at Ringstead Downs





One of a few Sea Campion plants in flower at Holme Dunes

The Mouse-ear-hawkweeds have suddenly flowered en masse on the dunes

And one plant off patch at Burnham Norton.  Mousetail, a member of the Buttercup family, is flowering well in the corral and field gateway.  It likes bare earth where its hard fruits can be trampled by the feet of cattle.  It is a vulnerable and nationally declining species.  It also used to grow in arable where its fruits were probably trampled by the heavy working horses.