New shoots of willowherb among the roots
I eventually decided to pull up the willowherb and enchanter’s nightshade that were seeding all over the gravel bed in the garden and was taken by the tiny red growth starting among the exposed roots of the willowherb, like little ruby roses.
A pile of pulled weeds
Rosebuds among the roots
Thank you to Hollis of In the Company of Plants and Rocks for commenting that these growths have the botanical name turions (from the Latin turio, meaning “a shoot”).
Red always catches my eye – I saw there were scarlet lily beetles around. Camouflage is not their strong point!
Scarlet lily beetles (Lilioceris lilii)
For once I let them live as the lilies are over for the year anyway.
Don’t they make a mess of the leaves?
An orb-web spider (Metellina segmentata) was also making use of the dead lily stalks as anchorage for its web.
Spider wrapping an insect
Nearby in the herb garden the fennel had gone to seed – but I never quite know when I should cut it back.
Fennel seeds
Small snail on the fennel foliage
One final bright little plant that I always forget until it appears on the rockery in autumn is this little kaffir lily – which I call Schizostylis coccinea but which I see now is officially Hesperantha coccinea.
Kaffir lily, also known as river lily or crimson flag
Every season has its small treasures…
The Squirrelbasket 
Sometimes we’re just too busy to notice the little (but could be important!) things.
Love this post Pat. Thank you.
Thanks Shaz 🙂
Wow, this is amazing. Two days ago a friend and I were trying to key out a native willow herb. The key asks whether turions are present among the roots. For years I’ve ignored this as I’ve never seen anything other than roots on willow herbs. When I saw your photo, I thought “these must be turions!” and did a bit of googling. Sure enough! So thanks for the great turion photo 🙂
(here’s the link: http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/glandularwillowherb.html)
Thanks so much for sharing a new word! I have absolutely never seen that one before.
I see from Wikipedia that it’s from the Latin for “shoot” – turio.
Don’t you just love serendipity?
All the best 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing a new word! I have absolutely never seen that one before.
I see from Wikipedia that it’s from the Latin for “shoot” – turio.
Don’t you just love serendipity?
All the best 🙂
What a pretty little turion. You have to take care they don’t drop off from the roots you’re digging out though as each one has everything it needs to become another plant! Seed-eating birds love fennel seeds, so maybe leave cutting them down till they’re all gone? Lovely fat spider.
I think the turions are the least of my weed problems, as I allow the willowherb to go to seed and blow around anyway!
And a worse problem are the Japanese anemones that refuse to disappear from what I have now made into a herb garden.
I have noticed the fennel seeds are disappearing, but haven’t seen any birds there. Nearly all gone now. Is the fennel a perennial?
Yes, fennel is a perennial and will form a sizeable clump over time as the original ‘bulb’ multiplies. Unless you dig it up and eat it of course!
Thanks for that confirmation.
I will cat it back this weekend!
All the best 🙂