Flower Closeups

Fodder Burnet, Poterium sanguisorba ssp. balearicum.  Darrick Wood, 10 May 2015.

These are flower closeups.  They do not give an impression of the plants as a whole in any way, but they do show the beauty of detail.  The first is Fodder Burnet, a close relative of the more common Salad Burnet.  The heads have flowers of two different genders.  First, the female flowers open at the top.  You can see the red stigmas on the head in the middle.  Then the stamens droop out of the male flowers.
 

Wood Forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica.  The Knoll, Hayes, 10 May 2015.

These Wood Forget-me-not flowers are a light sky blue, and are larger than those of the other wild Forget-me-nots. It's a common wildflower and can also be seen as a garden plant.  They seed themselves quite well in my own little garden.

Hoary Cress, Lepidium draba.  West Wickham Common, 11 May 2015.

Hoary Cress appears to be tolerant of salt.  I found this display at the edge of a main road.  It makes a white splash in much the same way that Cow Parsley lines country lanes.

Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes.  Field below Darrick Wood, 11 May 2015.

Crosswort is easy to find in Bromley county.  Look for yellow patches in meadows.  The leaves are yellowish too, and the plant as a whole almost glows.  It grows well on the chalk, but this patch was in a clay meadow.

Field Horsetail, Equisetum arvense.  Fertile cone.  Field below Darrick Wood, 11 May 2015.

In the same field I found this much more primitive flower.  It's a fertile cone of a Field Horsetail, a plant that reproduces with spores rather than seeds, as ferns do.  Plants in this family are the distant descendants of those that turned into coal.  Their vegetative shoots look nothing like this!