Just The Leaves

Leaf rosette of Weld, Reseda luteola.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

Another post from Nashenden Down, showing a few plants that were only present as leaves, with the flowers to follow later in the year.  Even the leaves can be quite distinctive, like this Weld, and its close relative the Wild Mignonette.

Wild Mignonette, Reseda lutea.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

These next undistinguished clumps, scattered liberally through the wood, will produce the greenish flowers of Stinking Iris, whose leaves are said to smell of fresh meat when crushed - if I had known that on the day I would have tried it.  Perhaps I'll see some more soon.

Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

I thought at first that this last plant was a Foxglove, but it would have been completely out of place; not in a shady wood with acid soil, but out in the open, in a dry calcareous soil.  So it has to be Ploughman's Spikenard, which will have arrays of yellow flowers that hardly seem to open, so short are the rays of its florets.

Ploughman's-spikenard, Inula conyzae.  Nashenden Down Nature Reserve, 14 April 2012.

There is a very rich flora here that will certainly be worth another visit later in the summer.