Great roof garden!
Just a couple of recent city wildlife observations that I have to put somewhere! The other day I noticed this unusual wild “roof garden” among some chimney pots…
What’s that sprouting from the chimney?
We see a lot of Buddleia bushes growing out of old stonework and chimneys here in Cardiff, but this was the “weed” with pale yellow flowers and lots of bare stalks I have often seen but never bothered to name.
I always thought it was a member of the Cruciferae family, so called because of the four-petalled “cross-shaped” flowers, like mustard, cress, cabbage and charlock. When I was a child farm fields were full of pale yellow charlock but now it has been replaced by brighter yellow oil-seed rape, also a member of the family.
And somewhere I took my eye off the ball, as I hadn’t realised the Cruciferae name has been officially replaced by Brassicaceae, after the brassicas that form an important genus in the family.
Anyway, I have now identified this “weed” as hedge mustard, Sisymbrium officinale. According to Wikipedia the Greeks thought this plant cured all poisons, the Tibetans use it to relieve the symptoms of food poisoning – and it can soothe sore throats so is sometime’s called the singer’s plant…
Closer inspection revealed…
…a young seagull
The seagull did make a lot of noise, so maybe it should have eaten the hedge mustard to soothe its sore throat!
Now then, all together:
Chim chiminey, chim chiminy, chim chim cheree…
See the video here.
And here are some more of my seagull posts.
I’ll throw in a couple more bird snaps from the last few weeks…
Anxious young magpie on the roof
Young blackbird in sycamore tree in the garden
Young blue tit on bird fat
Nuthatch on moon maple
That’s it for now. Be careful when monitoring the rooftops, won’t you? I’d hate you to trip over a paving slab and fall flat on your face or something silly like that…
The Squirrelbasket 
Hi Pat
How did you identify <>? I find it very hard to identify members of this family when I am standing next to them, much less at a distance on a roof top. Why couldn’t it be a true mustard (this one comes under rockets) like White or Black Mustard, for instance?
I’ma very poor botanist, I just try and learn a few I come across. But I see that there are dark objects lower down the plant which could be either leaves or seed pods, but in either case they are on significant stalks — and I think that both seed pods and leaves of hedge mustard grow directly from and stay close to the plant stems.
Paul
Just guessing, as always!
It struck me as having the same ball-like flower heads and sideways branching habit as images I have seen of hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale) and it is known to be a common weed of wasteland in the UK.
White mustard (Sinapis alba) seems to me to be more upright and the flower heads are bigger and yellower.
Black mustard (Brassica nigra) is a possibility, although again the stems don’t seem to go sideways as much, and I don’t think it’s a common weed in the UK?
If anyone else would like to put me right on my identification, feel free to fire away with more suggestions…
All the best 🙂
The little rooftop garden looks brilliant up there, I wounder if the birds have eaten the seeds in the past and that’s why its there ?
Want to do a urban post or plants in strange places post, now I’ll have to go out and look at chinmys..
Amanda xx
I guess you must be right about the “droppings”!
I expect you see Lucy Corrander’s regular Message in a Milk Bottle images? She is always finding plants in strange urban places!
All the best 🙂
Yay! You won’t be surprised if I say I too like these roof top gardens.
No, I’m not surprised!
If I were as patient as you I could probably take a picture a day just of plants growing out of brickwork on my way to work!
Keep up the good work 🙂
Although I recognize the weeds in my garden, I don’t have names for most of them. Now you’ve given me one: “hedge mustard”. It’s a delightful name!
Funny how often the common names of plants are actually quite logical!
Best wishes 🙂
Those are brilliant photos, not easy with birds!
Sometimes I get lucky – you ought to see all the pictures “on the cutting room floor”!
Thank goodness for digital or I’d be wasting a lot of film, paper and money.
Best wishes 🙂