NATURE TABLE EXPLORER

I love the road verges as they flower through the year. At the moment verges are turning red with dancing poppies. The new road developments are coated scarlet with these delicate, red petaled beauties.

I parked my car next to a Costa at the new shopping development at Rushden lakes to walk through a newly developing road verge to investigate further.

There were over 26 obvious large flowering plants excluding grasses in this short expedition. The area was alive with bees,hover flies spiders and other invertebrates . Road verges form an important corridor habitat supporting plants and animals across the country.

These areas of new development are like an impressionist painting, full of colour and flowers.

Take a stroll though some of the flowers growing on the verge with me.

• Sainfoin ( Onobryce viciifolia)
• Forage Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba ssp balearcium)
• Purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea)

Scented Mayweed (Matricaria chamomilla)

• Poppy(Papaver rhoeas)

Welted thistle (Carey’s crispus)

Ribwort plantain ( Plantago lanceolata)

White Campion (Silene latifolia)

There are lots of plants on these verges , the list would be long, here is a short list of some other plants living in this new ground.

Red Campion ( Silene dioica)

Small flowered cranesbill( Geranium pusillium)

White clover ( Trifolium repens)

Red clover (Trifolium pratensis)

Lesser trefoil ( Trifolium dubium)

Ox Eye Daisy(Leucanthemum vulgare) – these are spectacular and are looking wonderful this year.

The amount of flowers around this development is wonderful as you can see by the following pictures.

As we drive past these corridors of habitats it’s worth remembering how important they are .