Purple flowers are everywhere
on the Trap Grounds this month, in the form of thistles, teasels, marjoram, mallow, knapweed, water mint, hemp agrimony, clustered bellflower, buddleia and
michaelmas daisies (both of them garden escapes) ... and (photographed below)
Great Willowherb, Rosebay Willowherb, Purple Loosestrife, and Phragmites
australis.
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| Great Willowherb. (C. Robinson, Trap Grounds, August 2019) |
Great Willowherb (Epilobium
hirsutum -- 'hirsutum' refers to the softly hairy stem) frequents damp
places and flourishes on the banks of the TG ponds and streams. Many insects
feed on the leaves, including the Elephant Hawkmoth, Deilephila elpenor. This is the largest of all the willowherbs, even
taller than the spiky-flowered Rosebay Willowherb (below), which flourishes on waste
ground.
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| Rosebay Willowherb (C. Robinson, Trap Grounds, August 2019) |
Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria (below), even taller than Great
Willowherb, is another plant that flourishes in reedbeds, marshes, and riverbanks. Its nectar is a valuable
food source for long-tongued insects, such as Brimstone butterflies, Red-tailed
Bumblebees, and Elephant Hawkmoths.
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| Purple Loosestrife (C. Robinson, Trap Grounds, August 2019) |
Even our ubiquitous reeds, Phragmites australis, providing safe havens for Water Voles, Water Rails, Reed Buntings, and Reed Warblers, produce purple flowers in dense panicles in August.
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| Phragmites australis (C. Robinson, Trap Grounds, August 2019) |
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