Flowers of the Field

There are lots of interesting wildflowers ('weeds') blooming these days in our meadow, and along roadsides, fencerows and in ditches.  They're mostly common, but I always like watching for them as the season unfolds into summer.

The bright yellow Bird's-foot Trefoil has become one of the most common along our roadsides.  Sometimes the roadside looks yellow there is so much of it.

And in our lawn, the clover is ubiquitous.  There is a little grass in there too, but the clover really helps the lawn stay looking green.

The hawkweeds are some of the most intricate little flowers.  The Yellow Hawkweed or King Devil seems more common, but we also have some of the Orange Hawkweed or Devil's Paintbrush (not to be confused with Indian Paintbrush).  It's one of my favourite, simply because I like bright colours.

The deep purple Common Vetch is one of the most persistent weeds in the garden, but it appears in the meadow and along roadsides too.

I've found the Yellow Vetch much less common, but still pretty.

These are the tiny Balsam Ragwort flowers.

There's lots of Red Clover too, really more a deep pink colour.

The Daisy Fleabane looks like a tiny daisy, with very small white rays around the yellow centre.

And finally this year I spotted some very tiny white flowers which turned out to be Bluets.  One of the most inconspicuous flowers, I've simply never noticed it before.  The blossom is about 1/4" across.

The yellow Goatsbeard, that opens in the morning to face the sun, has mostly gone to seed now, forming what looks like a giant dandelion seed head.

So next time you're walking the fields, along a fencerow, or even along the roadside keep an eye out for these 'flowers of the field'.  they do change over the season, and soon we'll meet some others that come out in bloom.