Common chickweed

Common chickweed (Stellaria media) lives up to its name in all respects. It is a weed that is the bane of many gardeners, it can be used to feed chickens, and it is extremely common!

It has branched leafy stems that sprawl across the ground, although the flowering stems can reach 14 inches (36 centimetres) high. The lower leaves grow on stalks whereas the higher ones are stalkless.

The flowers have five tiny white petals that have deep notches, thus producing ten-pointed “stars” that account for the botanical name “Stellaria”. One reason for chickweed’s success is that it flowers, and produces seeds, right through the year, thus allowing it to spread when other weeds and plants are dormant.

Common chickweed also has a remarkable defence against drought. A line of hairs runs down one side of each stem. These catch drops of dew and conduct them down the stem until they reach a pair of leaves. Here the water collects, with any excess running further along the stem. These reservoirs can then be absorbed by the plant when other sources of water are absent.

Although chickweed is despised by many gardeners and growers it does have the use mentioned above as food for chickens and cage-birds, and it can also be eaten by humans as a salad crop.

© John Welford

Common rock-rose

The common rock-rose (Helianthemum nummularium) is not a rose. The first part of its botanic name means “sunflower”, but it is not a sunflower either! However, its flowers do not open at night or in dull weather, so in one sense “sunflower” is an apt description.

The common rock-rose grows in rocky places, and also scrub and grassland, in England, Wales and southern Scotland.

It sends up branching shoots from a woody base. Those that grow upright reach a maximum height of 12 inches (30 centimetres) but others trail along the ground and may root themselves to form new plants. The narrow leaves grow in pairs at intervals along the stem, each leaf having a pair of tiny stipules at its base and dense white hairs on the underside.

Yellow buttercup-like flowers appear from June to September, giving rise to globe-shaped fruit that have a hairy casing. The flowers have no scent and do not produce nectar, although they still manage to attract insects. However, they are largely self-pollinating, this taking place when the flowers close up and the pollen on the stamens in pushed on to the style.

The flowers are delicate and will fall off if the plant is disturbed. 

© John Welford

Annual seablite

Annual seablite (Suaeda maritime) grows on seashores and in salt marshes around the British coast. It is a halophyte pant, which means that it can tolerate being immersed in seawater, which happens twice a day as the tides rise and fall.

Annual seablite is actually a plant that does not just tolerate a high salt environment – it needs it in order to survive. However, it also needs a well aerated soil and usually grows on sandy seashores.

The name blite is an old word derived from the Latin for spinach. The plant was used by medieval herbalists, and also for the making of an inferior type of glass – the plants, when burned, yield an impure form of sodium carbonate.

The plant stems either sprawl along the ground or grow upright, the maximum height being around 12 inches (30 centimetres). The stems have a reddish tinge; the leaves are fleshy and stalkless.

The flowers, which appear from July to September, grow in the junction of leaf and stem and consist of a single whorl of sepal-like segments.

© John Welford