Toadflax

Such knowledge as I have of wildflowers has been learned - and much of it more quickly forgotten - over the last ten years or so simply by finding a flower, photographing it, and then wanting know what it was. So it was with this very pretty plant, first found - or, rather, noticed - at Littleferry some three years ago. It was easily identified as common toadflax, Linaria vulgaris. The name 'toadflax' comes, apparently, from the toad-like mouth formed from the two-lipped structure of its flowers and the plant's narrow, pointed, flax-like leaves.

In my ignorance, until recently I made no connection between it and a 'weed' which suddenly appeared and, over a period of time, increasingly colonised our garden. I liked it because of its brilliant purple colour variations, because it required absolutely no attention at all, because it happily self-seeded, but more because, even in the cool, damp weather we have at the moment....

....the bees love it.

When I finally got round to identifying it I discovered it was purple toadflax, Linaria purpurea, a non-native perennial plant often found growing in waste ground and roadsides. It's a native of Italy, introduced into the UK a couple of hundred years ago.

To add to is attraction, it started turning up in shades of pale pink, a not uncommon variation of purple toadflax which is equally attractive to....

....the local bee population.

We're hoping to start creating a new garden in the next few months, a wild garden dedicated to birds and insects. One of the species which I hope to transfer to it will be Linaria purpurea.