Beyond Blackweir in spring

A very pink red campion (Silene dioica)

When I go to visit “my” 100 elm trees in Pontcanna Fields here in Cardiff, I am always tempted to walk on, cross Blackweir Bridge over the River Taff and keep going until I reach Bute Park and eventually the city centre.

I was last in this wild area in January and blogged about it here. Last week I visited again and the spring wildflowers were wonderful. I also think I found the purple maple tree I failed to locate back in the winter.

The path from Blackweir towards Bute Park

These red campions were the first flower I saw – and I now understand that male and female flowers are carried on different plants – these are male, with broader petals

A very poor picture of a white dead-nettle (Lamium album)

There were bluebells beneath the trees…

…I don’t know if they are native bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), Spanish or a cross

Among the bluebells was wild garlic (Allium ursinum), also called ramsons

Buttercup, maybe creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens)

There are so many umbelliferous plants but I always think of this as cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)…

These bigger umbels are probably hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) or maybe giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), although still small

I was wowed by these next blue flowers, but surprised when I managed to identify them. My first thought was a relative of speedwell or forget-me-not, but it turns out to be green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), also known as evergreen bugloss because it keeps its leaves in winter. It’s a new one to me.

Green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)

Not surprisingly, like algebra and alcohol, alkanet comes from the Arabic, via Latin and Spanish and Middle English. In Arabic it was al-ḥinnā, meaning “henna”. The related species Alkanna tinctoria, dyer’s alkanet, was the source of a red pigment. Both are members of the borage family.

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

I was trying not to look at the trees, as you can have too many, but as usual I couldn’t help it…

Some sort of maple (Acer), possibly sycamore

A different maple

There were many big horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum)…

…horse chestnut flowers

Bluebells under a hornbeam tree (Carpinus betulus)…

…delicate hornbeam leaves

This was the big old oak on the Blackweir sports fields in January…

…this is the oak (possibly Quercus robur) now…

…oak leaves, and you can just see the flowers

I can’t identify this tree…

…but the flowers were intriguing

This was some sort of birch, I think, although there’s a chance it’s a poplar…

…the leaves and flowers

This is ash (possibly Fraxinus excelsior), although I’ve never noticed the big developing seeds before

When I previously visited this area I was looking for a tree I had spotted on the Cardiff Council park plant website, a very special Norway maple – Acer platanoides “Goldsworth purple”. I had hoped to follow it throughout the year, as the pictures showed wonderful dark red leaves contrasting with yellow-green flowers. But I had no idea where it was and the trees were bare, so I had no chance of finding it. This time, in all its glory, there was no missing it.

I was in a great hurry as I was running late for a meeting in the city centre, but when I spotted this magnificent tree I just HAD to take a detour into the clearing where it stood…

The wonderful purple Norway maple in a clearing…

…glorious!

Leaves and flowers

The leaves in a slightly different light

One final observation…

A carved stump…

…with an owl…

…and a couple of four-legged animals, but I’m not sure whether they are a dog and a rat or a cat and a mouse

It was time to put my camera away and get to that meeting…