Fields and gardens share a number of common features:
| Frequent cultivation and disturbance of the soil |
| Application of chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides |
| Mechanical disturbance of plants such as mowing, pruning, and trampling |
Plants have to be able to withstand these pressures; sometimes they thrive in spite of them. The wild plants which grow in fields and gardens are often referred to as weeds, but we should remember to think of a weed as any plant which is growing in the 'wrong' place. Some weeds are very striking in appearance, while others have tiny insignificant looking flowers. Think about the environmental pressures mentioned above as you look at, and read about, the plants which are described below.
Medicago lupulina - Black Medic, Forres
This tiny creeping relative of clover is very common in short turf, and a frequent weed in lawns. Perhaps we should be more tolerant of plants which grow among the grass in our garden lawns - after all, they add a splash of colour!
Galium aparine - Goosegrass, Forres
Another common garden weed, whose hooked seeds give rise to other common names, Sticky Willie and cleavers. Shown at near natural size here, the white flowers are tiny and easily overlooked.
The next two species are typical garden and field 'survivors'. The leaves form a tight basal rosette which smothers any competing plants close to the ground; the plants produce a great many seeds, and can also reproduce vegetatively, from broken-off fragments of the parent plant; and the tight cluster of leaves is easily able to withstand all but the closest mowing and heavy trampling of feet and machinery. In the case of the Dandelion, the root system is a long taproot which goes deep into the soil to search for moisture, and which can survive being chopped up into pieces, each sprouting a new plant.
Bellis perennis - Daisy, Forres
We believe that it is just as important to show the common plants, as well as the rare ones. There can be few plants more common than the Daisy, often the first lawn weed to appear in the spring.
Taraxacum officinale - Dandelion, Forres
The seeds are produced without the need for pollination, which helps to ensure the widespread success of this species. However this also has the effect of giving rise to many populations of the plant which are distinct from each other, and over 100 varieties of the Common Dandelion have been recorded in this country.
As plants and flowers from around different parts of the world have been brought into cultivation and imported, either as crops or because of their aesthetic appeal, the seeds of many of them have escaped from fields and gardens, and in many cases the plants have established their own wild or 'feral' population. A number of the plants described below are in this category of 'garden escapes.'
Hesperis matronalis - Dame's Violet, Forres
Often referred to as just 'Stocks', this attractive plant is a frequent garden escape around much of Moray, especially close to the rivers Findhorn and Spey. It is often grown as a garden flower as its blooms are sweet scented, especially in the evening. It is also important as an alternative foodplant for the larvae of the Orange Tip Butterfly, which lays its eggs on the stalk just behind the flower. The usual food plant is Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensis).
Lunaria annua - Honesty, Forres
This is another cultivated garden flower, grown for its decorative seed pods, which often 'escapes' onto roadside verges and rubbish tips. It can often be found for example near the banks of the River Findhorn below Forres.
Oilseed Rape, Moray
The bright yellow flowers of this member of the Cabbage family have become a very familiar sight in recent years across much of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Fife and the Central Scotland. The plant is grown for its seeds which yield a valuable oil. It is used in the food industry, and as an environmentally friendly substitute for diesel oil to fuel vehicles. However in recent years there has been much acrimonious debate as to the merits of so-called Genetically Modified strains of the plant, which have been deliberately 'engineered' at the molecular level to resist herbicides, or to produce their own 'built-in' pesticides. But do such plants present other dangers to wildlife, such as bees and other pollinating insects?
Herbicide treated field margin, Moray
Modern agriculture, especially cereal growing for which Moray is renowned, relies considerably on the use of agricultural chemicals of various kinds. Selective herbicides, which destroy broad-leaved weeds (but leave the cereal plants unaffected) are widely used to remove plants which compete with cereal crops for water, nutrients and light. However, care is needed when applying these chemical sprays to ensure that the plants growing beyond the crop are not killed. The effect of such lack of care is clear in the above photograph, where plants such as hedge parsley and field poppies growing beyond the field, in the roadside verge, have been killed. If even verges and ditches are not safe for such plants, where else may they survive? Notice too how modern pressures on agriculture have resulted in there being no field margin at all, the crop being planted to within a few inches of the fence. Even a one metre margin around the crop within the field would have provided a 'buffer zone' for spray drift between the crop, and the roadside verge.
Set-aside farmland, Moray
Set-aside land is agricultural land which has, subject to a number of restrictions, been taken out of cultivation for a set period of time, to reduce the capacity for over production of certain crops. It often provides a refuge and haven for many wild plants and flowers, such as poppies, shepherd's purse, field pansies and others. Weeds which were once common in cornfields, and have become more scarce in recent years due to changes in farming methods, can once again appear in such places. Interestingly though, they may disappear again after a couple of years as the competition from other species smothers them. This suggests that their seeds can survive many years in the soil without germinating - up to forty years is not uncommon for some species. Longevity of their seeds is another useful adaptation for 'opportunistic' agricultural weeds.
Fumaria officinalis - Common Fumitory, Forres
One of the more attractive agricultural weeds, which often manages to survive some of the herbicide treatment, especially among potato crops.
Senecio vulgaris - Groundsel, Forres
A common weed of cultivated fields, gardens and waste places. The flowers are not very attractive, but give rise to clouds of seeds born on parachutes, like dandelion 'clocks'. This specimen, growing in a forest clearing, was over two feet tall, but the plant is often much smaller than that.
Trifolium pratense - Red Clover, Moray
Varieties of Red Clover were once grown as a hay crop, but are less popular now. The plant is often found in the verges and banks of former hayfields.
Trifolium repens - White or Dutch Clover
This plant was also grown as a hay crop, and is still plentiful in grassy meadows. Sometimes cereal crops are undersown with it, as the plant has the ability to absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it into valuable nitrates within the soil. White Clover is also very valuable as a source of honey for beekeepers.
Plantago lanceolata - Ribwort Plantain, Forres
A frequent weed of lawns and gardens, which also goes under the common name of Soldiers or Sodgers.
Lamium purpureum - Red Dead-Nettle, Forres
Another early flowering spring weed, which can set seed and produce a second generation of flowering plants later in the same year. This is a very useful characteristic of plants which can withstand the pressures of living in cultivated ground - a short growing and reproductive cycle, with two chances in the same year to produce seed and spread. Some other weeds can manage up to three cycles in the year.
Lamium album - White Dead-Nettle, Forres
Not nearly so common as the Red Dead-Nettle, taller and more eye catching, it is sometimes found in large patches in waste ground and fields. This one was photographed on a building site in former farmland.
Euphorbia helioscopia - Sun Spurge, Moray
Many species of Euphorbia are grown as garden plants - this is not one of them, but is commonly found as a weed in cultivated ground. Like all the spurges, the stems contain a white milky sap which can burn and blister the skin.
Urtica dioica - Stinging Nettle, Moray
There are very few people who have not come into contact with a stinging nettle at some time. The whole of the above-ground part of the plant is covered with stinging hairs. It is also a very important foodplant for the larvae of a number of butterflies, including the Red Admiral and Small Tortoishell. The young leaves can also be used to make a nutritious soup - the stinging hairs are destroyed by the heat of cooking.
Stellaria holostea - Greater Stitchwort, Moray
Although not strictly a field or garden plant, these flowers are often seen in early spring in grassy banks and ditches, especially around field margins and adjoining woodland.
Reseda luteola - Weld or Dyer's Rocket, Moray
Historically plants have been cultivated for a number of reasons - as food, medicine, fodder for animals, for their fibres, and in the case of this species, as a source of dye. The plant was especially valuable in this respect as, by applying additional chemicals, the plant yielded three colours of dye, blue yellow and green. This specimen was found growing in an abandoned railway line, and may well have originally been introduced in railway ballast, rather than being cultivated in the area.
