Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) at the base of a postbox
Lucy Corrander, over at the Loose and Leafy blog, has a section in which she features wild plants growing on town and city streets. So this post is for her!
I see these plants most days but only rarely take pictures of them. This is Llandaff Road in Cardiff, a traffic-busy street lined with houses and small front gardens, plus a few shops and former institutions. Here are the best plants I spotted in the space of about half a mile on a late-February morning. I suppose the traffic keeps the street quite warm. Any help with the identification gratefully received…
Dainty maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) on a stone wall
Could this be wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)?
And is this yet another species of Asplenium?
Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) now being undergrown by what looks like wood avens (Geum urbanum), which is hard to get rid of as the stems snap off when you try to pull out the roots
This is a picture of herb Robert I took in exactly the same place in May 2010, but it’s supposed to be an annual or biennial, so I guess it’s not the very same plant…
Herb Robert in May 2010
Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) at the foot of a postbox, also shown at the top of this blog post
More groundsel where a house wall meets the pavement
Not a native – bellflower (Campanula) escaped from a garden
It was when I was taking the above picture that I was accosted by a gentleman in tradesman’s clothes but with a briefcase. Did I look THAT suspicious, with my camera and with my furry trapper hat all a-flapping?
He asked if I was “all right there?” so I had to explain I was just taking pictures of weeds (as I would expect him to call them) for a blog post (although he probably didn’t know what that was).
Anyway, I could see why he would be anxious, as his company were lopping a bunch of big trees in the former school or home we were standing outside. He said they had to do it for safety reasons. I said fine, I could see they weren’t felling them. No, he said, wouldn’t do that. I wonder if he was worried because protesters actually saved a big nearby beech tree from developers a few years ago?
I was all smiles, trying to reassure him, and he probably did think me a bit odd. He even pointed out an access lane around the back that I might find interesting – and if I had been wanting to take pictures of the trees being trimmed I might have gone there. But I had street plants to find. I wonder if Lucy gets looks, too, when she is photographing things at ground level on the street?
One of my favourites – ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis)
Ivy-leaved toadflax in flower on the same street in May 2013
Not sure I recognise these leaves – possibly a daisy (Bellis perennis)? Behind are tiny dandelions (Taraxacum officinalis) trying to grow
Not sure about this one, either – something in the daisy/dandelion/thistle family (Asteraceae) like a sow thistle (Sonchus) or hawksbeard (Crepis) or hawkweed (Hieracium)?
This one’s easy…
…chickweed (Stellaria media)
Shame about the cigarette ends! I had to look this one up…
…I thought it might be a form of rock cress (Arabis) or bittercress (Cardamine) but the leaves and stems are all wrong. I can’t even tell yet if the flowers are four-petalled as members of the cress family would be. Any ideas?
Finally for Lucy – a badly-photographed moss…
I love mosses, but I can’t always get them in focus
Also see:
Loose and Leafy’s February 2015 street plants
From the Squirrelbasket in May 2010: Living on the edge: A weed by any other name.
The Squirrelbasket 
I get funny looks when I’m out photographing as well! You found loads, and I’m very impressed that you can name them as well. I still have to learn about mine!
Thanks for your comment on my blog.
Eileen @ In My Playroom (also doing Street Plants)
Thank you for stopping by to comment! I couldn’t name them without a big old illustrated book I have (and Wikipedia).
I am now following your blog, too.
I see you are decluttering! I tried last year for a while to get rid of one thing a day, but very soon failed!
You seem to be doing very well – I guess it helps to go public with it, a bit like Weightwatchers!
I will follow with interest and hope to get inspired.
I had better transfer that bit of comment to your blog, too, as it rightly belongs over there…
All the best 🙂
Hi Squirrelbasket, I get lots of strange looks and comments when I’m photographing for my Wednesday Weed. You get used to it eventually :-). Interesting that many of the weeds are so local – I almost never see Ivy-Leaved Toadflax here in London, but there’s lots of Creeping Bellflower about, plus Green Alkanet and Yellow Corydalis….
Glad I’m not alone, then! I don’t notice the looks these days, but of course you can’t ignore it when someone engages you in conversation!
You are probably right about the local aspect. I have never knowingly seen green alkanet (which I had to look up), although I see a lot of slightly similar germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) on the streets. And I do see yellow corydalis but that’s usually so close to gardens that I don’t consider it a street plant (and probably shouldn’t count the campanula, either).
I apologise for not paying enough attention to your blog lately – I have a problem with the ones I am following on WordPress as they only come into my “reader” and I never look there, only at blogs that come into my email inbox! But I now see what I am missing (lovely posts on snowdrops and gulls) – so I will resolve to pay more attention to my WordPress Reader.
Best wishes 🙂
Masses! Maybe it’s because you are further west? But I really was struggling to find any here. Come June it will be a different matter. The streets will flower!
About funny looks. For some reason people get very agitated when I photograph plants in drains. I’ve wondered whether it’s a bit like your trees – that I’m going to complain about blockages.
One time in Southampton I was kneeling at the top of a pedestrian subway taking a photograph of a wild plant when I heard passers by commenting I was a Muslim praying!
Oh dear! (that was a comment on your last sentence)
But all is revealed – you KNEEL! I’m afraid I don’t, as I am usually wearing my work clothes and it’s muddy. Also if I kneel I will never get up again (dodgy joints from my days as an archaeologist kneeling in wet trenches).
I “coopie down”, which is our local way of saying squat. Looking online that seems to be a Bristol term, so I’m not sure where that came into my childhood on the South Wales border.
I’ve steered away from drains – but I am starting to see their appeal, even though I will always be terrified of dropping something down them.
All the best – and thanks again for your great street plants theme 🙂
I remember when I had budgies I’d often pick this plant for them (groundsel). As well I would pick up Cuttlefish from off the beach.
That’s an interesting one. We had a budgie when I was very small and I have a feeling we fed it groundsel from the garden, too, but I had forgotten that.
We were a long way from the sea, so didn’t pick up cuttlefish, but I remember buying it – I think they sharpen (or clean) their beaks on it, don’t they?
Best wishes 🙂
That’s quite a street flora already!, neat to see. I especially like the groundsel … looks like a tough little plant that can survive on the street. I’m quite sure the white-flowered plant with cigarette butts is in the cress family. But I don’t recognize it. It already has a fruit (upper left in second photo). That might help with id.
Thank you for the kind comment – and I’m sorry I have only just found it. It was deep in my spam filter so it’s lucky I read all the spam before pressing delete!
Hopefully we will both recognise the cress-type plant when it gets bigger.
All the best for now 🙂
The Groundsel looks very similar to the Dandelion (taraxacum officiate) a wild weed that proliferates in the Northwest and most of U.S. It grows in the cement cracks, fields, beautiful green lawns and is strong and determined to grow in the worst unfertilized ground ever. It’s one of those plants that would survive a traumatic event to our earth.
It is an edible plant for salads and wine making.
We have dandelions too – exactly the same species that you are talking about.
I consider groundsel to be a poor relation, as it is much smaller in size than the dandelion. It’s impossible to tell the size from my pictures, of course!
Dandelions are totally edible, from root to leaves and flowers, but I find on checking that groundsel should not be eaten, as it contains a toxin.
You live and learn.
All the best 🙂