Greater Plantain
(Plantago major)
One of the commonest plants in the British Isles, found in Europe, from Iceland south and east to Spain, northern and central Asia. Typically found in trampled ground, roadsides, waste places and grasslands on a wide variety of different soils, a common weed of lawns and cultivated ground. Most vigorous in open, sunny sites.
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Records from pollen cores show Plantago major appears in Nordic countries about the same time as crop cultivation was adopted, some 4,000 years ago.
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A low-growing herbaceous perennial with a rosette of broad, oval, dark green leaves, with pale green veins and stems.
The basal leaves are rosettes of oval, smooth edged, broadly spoon-shaped leaves 5-20cm long by 4-9cm wide, which are sometimes upright but usually closely pressed to the ground, especially on trampled or mown areas.
Each leaf has strong parallel veins narrowed to short petiole (stalk) almost as long as the leaf itself. There are five to nine conspicuous veins over the length of the leaf..
The plantian produces long, leafless spikes of small, tightly clustered greenish to brownish flowers on upright stems up to 20cm high, with purple stamens, produced in a dense spike 5–15 cm long on top of the stem. The flowers are self- and wind pollinated, quickly swelling to form green seeds. Individual plants can produce up to 20,000 seeds. The seed coats secrete polysaccharide-rich mucilage on contact with water (myxospermy) which helps the seeds to contaminate grain crops or stick to passing animals. Propagates by seed produced prolifically through the growing season.
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Six varieties of Plantago major, based on leaf form and habitat, are currently recognised in the British flora.
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Ribwort Plantain
(Plantago lanceolata)
Native to Europe, including Britain, from Iceland south and east to Spain, northern and central Asia. Ribwort plantain is a plant of grasslands, field edges and cultivated ground, common on roadsides and tracks where other plants cannot flourish, and regularly pops up in lawns as a weed and can live anywhere, on neutral and basic soils, from very dry meadows to places similar to a rain forest, but it does best in open, disturbed areas. Historically, the plant has thrived in areas where ungulates graze and turn up the earth with their hooves.
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The plant is a low-growing, rosette-forming herbaceous perennial, it grows tall if it can do so, but in frequently-mowed areas it adopts a flat growth habit instead with a long tap root and rosettes of ribbed green leaves, which are flatter and more rounded in short turf, but longer and more upright in meadows and grasslands..
Ribwort plantain has spear-shaped leaves that
form a rosette at the base of the plant. The basal leaves are lanceolate spreading or erect, scarcely toothed with 3-5 strong parallel veins narrowed to short petiole, running parallel from the base of the leaf to the pointed top.
Short leafless, silky, hairy flower stems grow from its leaves, to 8cm high, with the stem being square in profile and deeply furrowed, can be quite hairy, ending in a compact ovoid inflorescence of many small brown flowers, 4mm, each with a protruding white anthers. It flowers between April and October.
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The flower heads gradually turn brown and seed. Its seed heads remain for most of the winter providing food for goldfinches and other seed-eating birds. The mode of reproduction can vary among populations of P. lanceolata. Reproduction occurs sexually, with the pollen being wind dispersed for the most part, though the plant is
occasionally pollinated by bees. P. lanceolata cannot reproduce asexually in the way that many other species of Plantago can. Each flower can produce up to two hundred seeds
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Can look a little like Hoary Plantain, Plantago media but this has downy/hairy leaves and is edible.
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Considered to be an indicator of agriculture in pollen diagrams, P. lanceolata has been found in western Norway from the Early Neolithic onwards, which is considered an indicator of grazing in that area at the time.
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Podosphaera plantaginis is a powdery mildew fungus that infects P. lanceolata. All of the P. lanceolata populations are infected by several strains of this powdery mildew fungus. Once the populations are infected, the symptoms are minimal at first. Then, after a few weeks or months lesions start to appear covering the entire surface of the leaves and the stem, making it very noticeable. Another species that infects P. lanceolata is Golovinomyces sordidus. Both of these mildews are obligate biotrophs, meaning that they can only infect living tissue. They cover the surface of the leaves and extend hyphae into the cell matrix in order to extract nutrients.
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After the populations are infected, they react in different ways. Some populations of P. lanceolata are more susceptible to different strains of powdery mildew. Also, some populations have multiple resistance phenotypes where on the other hand, others may only have one resistance phenotype. Overall, the populations that have the highest variety of resistance phenotypes will have the highest survival rates particularly when rates of infection are high.
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Creeping Buttercup
(Ranunculus repens)
A thriving native perennial, easily recognised with its bright yellow flowers, common in damp meadows, pastures, marshes and along woodland paths and gardens particularly on wet soils, throughout the Britain. It is the commonest of the buttercups and is an efficient colonist of areas that are disturbed by man and a troublesome weed of arable land. Creeping buttercup occurs on a wide range of soils but forms large colonies on wet, heavy land and if left unchecked and can form a dense network of shoots, runners and roots. It can withstand trampling and compaction and is common in gateways and on paths. It can tolerate both waterlogging and a moderate drought. This weed’s presence often indicates the need for improvements to soil structure and drainage.
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Creeping buttercup is said to deplete the land of potassium and may have an allelopathic effect on neighbouring plants.
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​Creeping buttercup is a very variable plant. can be distinguished from the other buttercups by the spreading way it grows with runners. It has a short swollen stem base, long stout adventitious roots and strong leafy, epigeal
stolons that root at the nodes. The stolons begin to develop around the time of flowering. In open and fertile sites, the stolons are long and well branched to ensure rapid colonisation. In close turf the stolons are few. It normally has a creeping habit under intense grazing or mowing but makes erect growth in taller vegetation. In dry conditions creeping buttercup flowers and sets seeds, in wet conditions it tends to increase by runners. The stolons grow rapidly when the vegetation cover is opened up by poaching or puddling, by mole activity and wherever the grass has died.
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Daughter plants form in the axils of the stolon leaves. The stolon internodes wither and rot away leaving the daughter plants as independent units. The parent plant dies after seed ripening and the daughters overwinter as leaf rosettes. In spring new leaves develop and later, just prior to flowering , buds low down on the rosette grow out into stolons that root at the nodes and produce a new crop of daughter plants. Stolon production continues into the late summer.
Plant morphology and growth vary with habitat and grazing pressure. A number of varieties have been described that differ in growth habit and flower colour. Stolon formation is linked with soil fertility and vegetation cover. Clones vary in leaf number and this determines the number of primary stolons that are produced. Some plants spread widely others remain relatively compact,
Creeping buttercup does not bear bulbs in the way lesser celandine (Ficaria verna subsp. verna) does.
The basal leaves are dark green with light patches and are compound, borne on a 4–20 cm long petioles and divided into three broad leaflets 1.5–8 cm long, shallowly to deeply lobed, each of which is stalked, distinguishing the species from the meadow buttercup (R. acris) in which the terminal leaflet is sessile and R. repens tends to stay more low-lying. Pale patches on the leaves distinguish creeping buttercup from similar looking plants such as hardy geraniums. The leaves higher on the stems are smaller, with narrower leaflets and may be simple and lanceolate. Both the stems and the leaves are finely hairy.
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The foliage is poisonous to livestock as the sap containes protoanemonin but grazing animals usually avoid buttercups as the foliage has an acrid taste, although when dried with hay these poisons are lost. Although it is usually avoided by stock creeping buttercup is more palatable than the other buttercups and may be grazed. However, it can cause diarrhoea in sheep and cattle. Contact with the sap of the plant can cause skin blistering.
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It flowers from May to August when it attracts flies, beetles and bees including honey bees. Its bright yellow, glossy flowers are about 2cm across with 5 petals grow singly on long, finely grooved stalks. The gloss is caused by the smooth upper surface of the petal that acts like a mirror; the gloss aids in attracting pollinating insects and thermoregulation of the flower's reproductive organs. Sometimes the plants do not flower in the first year or flowering is delayed until later in the year, up to October. The flowers are usually insect pollinated, however, some self pollination occurs. Not all plants flower and those that do so may have only a few flowers each producing 20-30 seeds. A flowering shoot may yield 140 seeds and the average seed number per plant is 687.
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​Ripe seeds are highly dormant and may need a period of after-ripening. Seedling emergence can occur sporadically throughout the year but the main periods are from February to June and August to October. Most seedlings emerge from 5 to 30 mm deep in soil. Adequate soil moisture is important for germination and early growth. Seedlings rarely develop in established vegetation but on open and disturbed land they often occur in patches or clumps. The seedlings are unaffected by frost.
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Seed longevity in soil is said to be 5 to 7 years but seed recovered from excavations and dated at 80 years old is reported to have germinated. Seed buried in undisturbed mineral soil at various depths retained around 50% viability after 20 years. Seed dormancy enforced by soil burial leads to a high population of creeping buttercup seeds in the soil seedbank. Up to 12,000 seeds per m² to 15 cm depth have been recorded. There is considerable persistence of creeping buttercup seed in the soil under grassland. It made up 36% of the seedbank when pasture was ploughed after 22 years. The annual decay rate of seed in soil has been measured at 38%. Seeds survived 3 years in dry storage. Viability was 18% after 1 year under granary conditions.
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Most seeds fall around the parent plant but birds eat some of them. Seedlings have been raised from the excreta of various birds including the house sparrow. Seeds have been found in the droppings of cattle and horses. Seeds eaten by earthworms have been recovered from wormcasts. Some rodents carry off and store the seeds. Seeds are also carried in mud on tyres and boots. Creeping buttercup seed has been a contaminant in clover, grass and cereal seeds, particularly home saved seed.
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Meadow Buttercup
(Ranunculus acris)
One of our best-loved and most familiar buttercups, which is such a characteristic flower of meadows throughout the UK. Meadow buttercup is a widespread and common perennial in meadows and pastures, verges and other grasslands in humus-rich, moist or moist but well-drained soil in either full sun or partial shade and at woodland edges. It is not tolerant of trampling but can survive frequent cutting. The plant is native to Eurasia, but has been introduced across much of the world.
Meadow buttercups can become common in grazed pastures because cattle usually avoid the plant due to its high ranunculin content, making them poisonous to grazing animals, causing inflammation of the digestive system and blistering in cattle if eaten fresh, but is okay when dried in hay. ​Oils in the plant, probably present in the leaves and stems, can cause abdominal pains if consumed. When eaten by animals, the buttercups have caused diarrhea and blindness.They have a chemical called protoanemonin in their sap.
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Meadow buttercup is an upright plant, usually hairy, growing up to 60cm tall. It’s long-stalked, palmately divided leaves are deeply lobed into narrow segments with pointed tips. Basal leaves are palmate and deeply divided into 3 to 7 narrow wedge shaped segments, each toothed or lobed. Unlike the Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), the terminal leaflet is sessile. Stem leaves are similar but smaller, and it does not possess the runners of Creeping Buttercup.
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The golden yellow flowers are carried in branching sprays; unlike creeping buttercup (R. repens) and bulbous buttercup (R. bulbosa) the flower stems don’t have a groove along their length, but are smooth, rounded and hollow.
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Meadow buttercup has yellow flowers, from May to August, about 2-2.5cm across with erect sepals, that comprise five, overlapping, shiny petals forming a shallow cup that gradually flattens out.
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​The petals of buttercup flowers trap a thin layer of air between two layers of cells. This gives them a mirror-like quality that reflects light, making them highly visible to pollinators.
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Meadow buttercup and bulbous buttercup look very similar. The best way to tell them apart is to look at the small green sepals under each petal; in meadow buttercup they cup the petal above, while in bulbous buttercup they are strongly reflexed backwards and lie against the flower stem.
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The flowers are visited by a number of pollinating insects. Flowering lasts for 2 months, after which most seeds have ripened and shed. Seeds are produced in star-like achenes (segmented seed pods). The first fruits appear in mid-June and peak fruiting is in mid-August. Each flower head contain 30 seeds. Seed numbers per plant normally range from 200 to 1,000 but a large plant may have 22,000 seeds.
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Seedling emergence is said to occur in autumn and spring but some research suggests that emergence is from January to April with no seedlings emerging at other times of year. Seedlings tend to occur in clumps or patches and there is heavy mortality at the seedling stage. Meadow buttercup does not establish well from seed in dry soils.
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After flowering, the summer leaves die and meadow buttercup passes the winter as a rosette of small leaves that appear unaffected by frost. The plant has a short creeping rhizome that is relatively persistent. The rhizome is dark brown to black with adventitious roots and the remains of the old leaf bases. It is densely packed with starch and contains the glucoside ranunculin. In the autumn a small branch of the rhizome produces a new vegetative shoot close to the parent. The connection decays as the plant develops resulting in a tightly clumped colony of individual plants over time. In February-March there is a rapid formation of new leaves and the starch reserves disappear from the rhizome. The rhizome may rot away after this and none of the original rhizomes may remain by flowering time.
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Meadow buttercup employs both seed and vegetative reproduction but the latter is restricted by the shortness of the rhizomes. It flowers at a time when most meadows are mown so it cannot rely on seed for persistence. Few buried seeds have been recorded in soils under pasture. Seeds in dry-storage have remained viable for 4 years. Plants in pasture have a half-life of 3 years.
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There is no obvious dispersal mechanism and seeds tend to fall around the parent plant. Birds eat the seed but it is unlikely that any seeds remain viable after digestion. The seeds are also predated by voles and mice.
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It is a very variable species with several sub-species and varieties but only ssp. acris is native in Britain. A white flowered form is sometimes found. Much of the variation is due to differences in growing conditions but some ecotypes have developed to suit particular habitats. Some populations have developed resistance to the herbicide MCPA.
The rare autumn buttercup (R. aestivalis) is sometimes treated as a variety of this species.
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Goldilocks Buttercup
(Ranunculus auricomus)
Known as goldilocks buttercup or Greenland buttercup, is a perennial species of buttercup native to Eurasia. Fairly frequent in England and Scotland, but less common in the North of Scotland and the West of England. Often in shady places such as woodland or copses, but sometimes in meadows. It is a calcicole typically found in moist woods and at the margins of woods. It is of interest to botanists due to its asexual reproduction, multiple microspecies and status as an ancient woodland indicator
It is a short, slightly hairy plant with bright yellow flowers, although is often found in a somewhat bedraggled and tatty state, minus some or all of its petals. Flowering starts in April and peaks at the end of May and start of June. The flowers are bright yellow, 15-25mm. The petals are frequently imperfect and quite often absent, and sometimes it can't be identified from the flower alone. It can reach a height between 30-50 centimetres, and have as many as 10 palmately-lobed basal leaves. The upper stem leaves are deeply lobed with 3 to 5 narrow segments,
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Although these flowers attract pollinating insects the plant is incapable of being pollinated and reproduces by apomixis, the seeds developing from unfertilised ova, and about 200 agamospecies have been recognised (i.e. from seed that is wholly female in origin, produced without fertilisation). These are all similar and have not all been fully described, so it should be recorded as a species aggregate.
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​The Goldilocks Buttercup is appreciated as an ancient woodland indicator. Its presence is an indicator of a continuously wooded site since 1600. Only about 2.5% of such ancient woodland sites survive today. Their soils have remained relatively undisturbed by human hands down the centuries. They boast a fascinatingly unique and complex, interdependent range of plants, fungi and insects as a result.
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Celery Leaved Buttercup
(Ranunculus sceleratus)
Also known as Cursed Buttercup, Celery-leaved buttercup is a flowering plant of damp places, in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has a circumpolar distribution in the northern hemisphere, native to temperate and boreal North America and Eurasia.
Found in wet meadows and the edges of ponds of mineral rich water and muddy bottoms, ditches, streambanks, and the margins of slow moving streams, often clinging on even if the pond has dried out. Generally avoiding acid soils.
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Easily overlooked, this little yellow-green annual herb, growing up to half a meter tall, can be quite variable in appearance.
The leaves are celery-like, more or less glabrous (hairless) and have small blades each deeply lobed or divided into three leaflets. They are borne on long petioles.
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The flowers appear from May to September in branched clusters at the top of stout, ridged stems. They are 5-10mm across with five or fewer yellow petals, a few millimeters long and the reflexed downturned sepals.
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These are followed in autumn by fruits in conical, elongated heads containing hundreds of little seeds.
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While all parts of the plant are poisonous when fresh, due to the presence of the substance protoanemonin, this applies in particular for the cursed buttercup: it is the most toxic buttercup and contains 2.5% protoanemonin. The plant also has a strongly acrid juice that when the leaves are wrinkled, damaged or crushed, they bring out unsightly sores and blisters on human skin. The toxins are destroyed by heat or by drying.
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Bulbous Buttercup
(Ranunculus bulbosus)
Bulbous buttercup is a native perennial herb that gets its name from its distinctive annually renewed swollen 'perennating organ': a bulb-like, swollen underground stem, which is situated just below the soil's surface and from which arise one or more aerial shoots.
It is common throughout England and Wales but is less frequent in Scotland. Seedlings fail to establish in very wet conditions and this may restrict distribution in Scotland.
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It prefers nutrient-poor, well-drained soils, and is primarily a lowland buttercup that is found in dry grassland and on grassy slopes or on the ridges in ridge and furrow pastures due to the ability to survive summer drought and is characteristic of lightly grazed pasture.
It becomes established where fresh soil is exposed, finding it hard to compete with taller, established plants. Although it doesn't generally grow in proper crops or improved grassland, it is often found in hay fields and in coastal grassland. In loose soils, such as on dunes, bulbous buttercup can adjust its depth by up to 10 cm if covered with blown sand.
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A number of varieties have been described.
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Often confused with R repens and R acris - all are common in grassland. As its name suggests, it has familiar bright butter-yellow flowers that appear from March to July.​ Flowering is not linked to day length. The flowers are 20 to 30 mm on furrowed stems, with petals that are usually yellow but white flowered forms occur. The sepals turn downwards ('reflexed') alongside the flower stalk; this distinguishes it from R repens.
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​There are alternate and sessile leaves on the stem.
and basal leaves with three lobes, a short section of stalk separates final leaf lobe from two basal side-lobes.
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​Each flower head contains 20-30 seeds, with an average number of seeds per plant of around 70. Often the seed will have ripened and been shed by early July. Seedlings emerge from July to October. Adequate but not excessive soil moisture is important for germination and early seedling growth.
After the seed has set in July, the plant dies down leaving a bare patch in the grass. It passes the summer as a corm that survives underground through the winter. The corms are buried 10-30 mm down in the soil and are 10-30 mm in diameter at the time of flowering. The corm is densely packed with starch plus around 1% of the glycoside ranunculin. The seed is the main method of new popagation. Bulbous buttercup produces about 10 times more seed than creeping buttercup (R. repens). The ability of new shoots to emerge from deeply buried corms allows the plant to re-establish itself in newly sown leys after a permanent pasture has been ploughed up.
There is no obvious dispersal mechanism and seeds normally fall around the parent plant often occurring in clumps or larger patches . Cattle may eat the seed heads during grazing and the seeds can pass unharmed through the digestive system. The seeds also survive digestion by birds.
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Corms do not need a period of cold to break dormancy only adequate moisture and favourable temperatures. Growth may begin again as early as August depending on rainfall levels. Sometimes this may lead to a brief second flush of flowers from some new shoots. By September the lateral bud of a corm that has flowered or the terminal bud of a corm that has not flowered becomes active and grows out from the old corm. If the old corm has become buried by loose soil the new shoot can extend itself up to the surface. Leaves develop and a small rosette is formed. The vertical corm-like stock overwinters and the rosette produces new leaves in March. The main foliage leaves form a basal rosette that is susceptible to shading. The leaves curl down to make a circular depression in the grass that excludes the development of other plants. A new corm develops at the base of the shoot. The old corm transfers food reserves to the new corm in February/March then dies. It is impossible to determine the age of a plant because the whole plant is renewed annually.
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This plant, like other buttercups, contains the toxic glycoside ranunculin. It is avoided by livestock when fresh, but when the plant dries the toxin is lost, so hay containing the plant is safe for animal consumption.
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The seeds and bulbs of bulbous buttercup form a major part of the diet of partridge.
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