Wild Flowers of Ireland

The thought of "Irish shamrocks" evokes in me visions of the green landscape of the Emerald Isle.

The Shamrock, a three-leafed old white clover is a symbol of Ireland and a registered trademark of the Republic of Ireland.

The term "shamrock" derives from the Irish word, "seamrog," which translates to "little clover." Rather vague, considering that there are many kinds of clovers -- and even more plants that can pass as clovers to the layman. Consequently, in St. Patrick's Day celebrations a number of plants serve as Irish shamrocks. But there is no "real McCoy" that can claim to be the authoritative shamrock.

Even among the denizens of Ireland itself, there is no consensus that dubs one particular plant as the true Irish shamrock, as Tippitiwitchet Cottage reports in a 1988 survey concerning shamrocks. The survey, conducted at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, revealed that when the Irish wear the "shamrock," it can be any one of four plants. Three of the plants are clovers, while the fourth is a clover-like plant known as "medick."

Bell Heather, a short, hairless, evergreen undershrub is also known as Ling. This native plant is a much loved sight on hills, moorland and dry acid soils. Coloring the landscape from June to September, the bell-shaped, pink/purple flowers are 5-6mm long and occasionally white. The 'bell' in fact is four petals fused together. Bell Heather's leaves are narrow, dark-green - sometimes bronzy - and in whorls of 3 up the stems. Heather is a very versatile plant. It can survive in many soil types, from those which are peaty with a high water content to those which are free draining and relatively dry.

Although heather can be found growing in the wild in many variations of purple/red, it is considered to be lucky to find heather with white flowers.

All heathers have been much used over the centuries, from bedding material, brooms, fuel, baskets, thatching to flavoring for beer. Heather also supplies nectar for the bees and it is well known to give flavor and color to honey.

The Red Deer and Roe Deer browse heavily on the heather, particularly in the winter months when other food is hard to find. Other 'nibblers' include Mountain and Brown Hare who require the young heather for browsing, and rank heather for cover. Rabbits living on moorland also enjoy young shoots.

Of course domestic animals too, such as cattle and sheep, benefit from grazing on heather in areas which have been specially designated and managed solely for this purpose.

For me, this plant represents the Burren at its best. With its most attractive foliage and its bright red-purple flowers it carpets rocky places, banks and even grows in the little hollows of the limestone pavements. From June to August, these 2-3cm five-petalled flowers appear, each on its own hairy stem. The deeply-lobed, dark green leaves are round but deeply divided to the base. The fruits of this outstanding native plant of the Burren, as is common to all cranesbills, end in long pointed crane-like seed heads.

When the blooms first appear on this plant, they are a beautiful magenta color and as they begin to fade, the flowers turn to a more violet hue. The stamens also change color during the short life of the flower: they start out with beautiful blue anthers which, when they have shed their pollen also shed their color. The leaves also change color becoming a beautiful rusty red in autumn.

The Bog Rosemary is a small shrub growing to 10-20 cm (rarely to 40 cm) tall with slender stems. The leaves are evergreen, alternately arranged, lanceolate, 1-5 cm long and 2-8 mm broad, dark green above (purplish in winter) and white beneath with the leaf margins curled under.

The flowers are bell-shaped, white to pink, 5-8 mm long; flowering is in late spring to early summer. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous seeds.

The name derives from the superficial resemblance of the leaves to those of the unrelated shrub Rosemary. Bog-rosemary, is found across northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Bog- rosemary is found in the cold peat-accumulating areas; large bogs of County Offaly including the Boora bog, Blackwater bog and the Bog of Allen.

Usage:
Bog-rosemary contains grayanotoxin, which when ingested lowers blood pressure. Be aware: it may cause respiratory problems, dizziness, vomiting, or diarrhoea.

Also called wood violet, this familiar un-scented, little wildflower of the woodlands, grasslands and shady hedge banks is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 5-15 cm tall. It is found in all soils except acid or very wet.

The flowers are a rich blue-violet, with a long slender stalk and dark-green heart-shaped leaves. The mouth of the flower is absolutely wonderful to view through a magnifying glass. It has a pattern of deep purple lines which run into the throat over a paler violet patch, becoming white. The upper petals have a fringe which is over the opening. Colonies of plants may be extensive, blooming from April to July in Ireland.

The name 'Dog' - probably suggests that this plant was thought to be inferior to the scented violet, which was particularly favored during the Victorian Era. The "scented" violet (viola odorata) has always been one of my favorite flowers. It blooms on the warm South side of our home. The flower's sweet fragrance wafting through open windows is very pleasing.

The Orchid family is a very large one and the plants belonging to it are fascinating and have long been considered very special. The colour of the flowers can vary from deep purple, through pink to white. This stunning Common Fragrant Orchid (Lus taghla) is most often found in a dense, cylindrical spike of pink flowers, sometimes up to 15cm long. Each individual little flower has petals closed together to form a hood. These flowers, blooming in July and August have an extremely clove-scented fragrance.

Crowds of these beautiful flowers can be seen in meadows, along roadways, in cornfields and on waste ground. They have papery scarlet petals, dark centres with a black spot at their base and bristles on their long stems.

Also known as Poip and Corn Poppy, the plant is a variable annual, blooming from June to August, forming a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed. Poppies ( Cailleach dhearg) generally flowers in late spring, but if the weather is warm enough other flowers frequently appear at the beginning of autumn.

Sea pink - a hardy, tufted thrift of coastal cliffs, mountains and saltmarshes of Ireland are sun-loving, low-growing evergreens. The little individual flowers on slender, leafless stalks are borne in dense spherical heads of pink or white during April to July but will often produce a second flush later in the season.

Sea Pink, a native to Ireland is also called cliff rose. They are very wind, drought and salt-tolerant and actually perform better on rather poor soil. They can even survive in soil with heavy metals!

This flower appeared on the old English twelve-sided threepenny-bit which was introduced in 1937 - perhaps it was meant to encourage another kind of 'thrift'?

Field bindweed is a summer perennial member of the morning glory family. Common on walls, hedges, disturbed ground and the upper parts of shingle strands, the Field Bindweed has a twining steam that enables it to climb other plants and fences. Its elegant white to pink funnel-shaped flowers close in late afternoon and when its wet or overcast.

Although very pretty while flowering, it is a serious weed problem. Field bindweed intertwines and topples native species. It competes with other species for sunlight, moisture and nutrients. It poses threats to restoration efforts and riparian corridors by choking out grasses and forbs. It can decrease habitat biodiversity. It is one of the most serious weeds of agricultural fields in temperate regions of the world. It is mildy toxic to grazing animals.

Common Names: wild morning glory, creeping Jenny, creeping Charlie, small flowering morning glory, Perennial morning glory, devil's guts, orchard morning glory, possession vine, corn bind.

The fragrant Honeysuckle can be found on many lanesides, hedges and roadside banks. Honeysuckle is one of the most beautiful of all wildflowers for it scent and ability to grow in difficult places.

Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle..

The Honeysuckle have sweetly-scented, bell-shaped flowers that produce a sweet, edible nectar which attracks Hummingbirds. Breaking of the Honeysuckle's stem will release a powerful sweet odor. The fruit is a red, blue or black berry containing several seeds; in the species grown in Ireland the berries are mildly poisonous.

Did you know?
~The British actress Honeysuckle Weeks was named after the honeysuckle flowers, which were in bloom at the time of her birth.
~Honeysuckle Rose - a song composed by jazz pianist Fats Waller and Andy Razaf.
~Honeysuckle Rose is also a 1980 Willie Nelson film.
~Honeysuckle is mentioned in Robert Frost's poem "To Earthward"
~The band Drivin' N' Cryin' is well known for their 1989 single "Honeysuckle Blue"
~Woodbine .. good for whooping cough. - From the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. NFC S.454:18 From Co Kerry

Whether you know it as Gorse, Furze or Whin, this must be Ireland's most remarkable native shrub. Throughout the year, the rich yellow peaflowers seem to light up the Irish landscape. The 15-20mm long flowers, with their wonderful aroma of coconut, are borne on stems of spiny bluish-green spikes. The leaves have been modified over centuries into rigid and furrowed thorns which withstand the harsh conditions of winters at higher altitudes, making the entire bush one mass of prickles and spines. These shrubs form very many hedgerows around the fields, they line the country roads and particularly from February to May, when their flowers are in abundance, they are a sight to behold. This plant belongs to the family Fabaceae.

The common name toadflax means "resembling a cymbal" for the somewhat rounded leaves.

By far the best known species is Ivy-leaved toadflax( Buafln balla) , has widely naturalised and is well known in English-speaking countries as Kenilworth Ivy.

It characteristically grows in sheltered crevices in walls and pathways, or in rocks and scree, making a trailing or scrambling plant up to 1 m long. Its small (1/4") pale lilac flowers, often with two areas of yellow near the centre, are somewhat orchid-like in form. The various species differ in subtle details of leaf shape and flower color; the flowers of one are pure white with a yellow centre and occasionally several species can be found growing together.

Ivy-leaved Toadflax is also known as Kenilworth Ivy (in the UK) and Aaron's Beard because of its long trailing roots or runners.

Daisy-like flowers of Sea Mayweed (Lus Bealtaine) provide splashes of color by the seaside in summer. It can be found on grassland and open ground by the sea, on shingle and waste ground on sea-cliffs and bird islands.

This is one of those plants described as "variable." It is very pretty, blooming from April to October with its lovely 20-40mm flowers with yellow centres and white petals. The fleshy leaves are also very pretty. This is one of Ireland's native coastal plants.

Montbretia (Fealeastram deargare) grown worldwide, and more than 400 cultivars have been produced. Some hybrids have become invasive species especially C. x crocosmiiflora hybrids which are invasive in Ireland. Hummingbirds are especially attracked to the sweet nectar of this flower.

They are commonly known in the United States as coppertips or falling stars. Other names, for hybrids and cultivars, include antholyza, and curtonus. The genus name, is derived from the Greek words krokos, meaning "saffron", and osme, meaning "odor."

Montbretia are winter-hardy in temperate regions. They can be propagated through division, removing offsets from the corm in spring.

This plant was named after Coquebert de Montbret (1780-1801) who was a French botanist who accompanied Napoleon when he invaded Egypt in 1798 and who died there at the age of 20. However, horticulturists also refer to this plant as 'Crocosmia' which comes from the Greek 'krokos' - saffron - and 'osme' - smell. I am told that they smell of saffron when placed in water.

Scurvy grass or Spoonwort) is a genus of about 30 species of annual and perennial herbs in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. They are widely distributed in temperate and arctic areas of the northern hemisphere, most commonly found in coastal regions, on cliff-tops and salt marshes where their high tolerance of salt enables them to avoid competition from larger, but less salt-tolerant plants; they also occur in alpine habitats in mountains and tundra.

Scurvy grass is typically 5-20 cm tall with smoothly rounded, spoon-shaped leaves (the scientific name Cochlearia derives from Latin cocleare, a spoon). The flowers are white with four petals and are borne in short racemes (as in the lily of the valley)

Extensively eaten in the past by sailors suffering from scurvy, after returning from long voyages, scurvy grass leaves are rich in vitamin C, which cures this deficiency disease resulting from a lack of fresh vegetables in the diet. The leaves, which have a strong peppery taste similar to the related horseradish and watercress, are also sometimes used in salads.

Spring Gentian (Ceadharlach Bealtaine) is the wildflower for which the Burren in County Clare is famed. Although there are many startlingly attractive flowers growing in this wonderful limestone area of western Ireland, the Spring Gentian is the plant which has become best known of all by those seeking to see the Burren's great variety of flowers. Its pure, bright blue solitary flowers are extremely beautiful.

As each of the five petal tubes unfurl, they spread to reveal a little white throat. Each flower has small fringed lobes or scales between its petals. The flowers are borne on upright stems, the leaves being bright green, oval, mostly in a basal rosette. These exquisite flowers bloom from late April to June. They are best found on grassy areas, near sand dunes and rocky pastures. In Ireland they are confined to the Burren and parts of Counties Galway and Mayo.

The name is a tribute to Gentius, an Illyrian king who was thought to have found out that the herbs had tonic properties.

Gentian is used as a flavouring, for example in bitters, and the soft drink "Moxie" which contains "Gentian Root Extractives."

Used for:
...is for that relatively mild downheartedness we sometimes feel when things go wrong. We miss a bus; fail an exam; miss out on an opportunity: it knocks us back. Often the feeling lifts by itself, but the remedy can be used to lift it sooner so that we are able to make things go right instead of just hoping they will.

Featured at Winging-ing It on Squidoo.

It was an honor to have been chosen as a featured lens at Winging-ing It on Squidoo.

Thank you, Chazz

~ LaraineRose

Wild Flowers of Ireland received a Purple Star on August 31, 2011.

The Purple Star Program!

Along with our new Squidoo program (you know, the experience points and trophies) comes a change to the Purple Star Program. Purple Stars are no longer jus...