Kidney vetch

Kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) favours dry grassland habitats, either on chalk downland or close to coasts. It is common throughout Great Britain. It is a plant that has many local names, including “fingers and thumbs” and “lamb’s foot”. In Yorkshire, East Anglia and Dorset it is known as “lady’s finger” after its silky, finger-like bracts – small leaves that appear just below the flower-heads.

In the Middle Ages the plant was regarded throughout Europe as a medicinal herb, particularly for healing wounds – hence the botanical name “vulneraria”, from the Latin “vulnus”, meaning a wound. 

It was called kidney vetch due to the old superstition that a plant that looked in part like a part of the human body must have been so designed by God as a hint that it had a beneficial role in treating ailments of that part of the body. In this case the kidney-shaped flowers were a clue to the plant’s supposed ability to cure kidney diseases.

Kidney vetch grows more or less upright to a height of up to 24 inches (60 cms). The stems and leaves have a silky feel. On each leaf stem the terminal leaflet is much larger than the rest. 

The flower-heads, which appear between June and September, are carried on long stalks with leaf-like bracts beneath them. The kidney-shaped flowers, which can be yellow, orange, red or purple, are a rich source of nectar but the stiff petals are too heavy for many small insects to open, so the rewards are mainly on offer to bumble bees.

The flowers go brown as they fade, after which the seed pods are enclosed by the purple-tipped woolly sepals.

Kidney vetch is a food plant of the small blue butterfly.

© John Welford

Common pipistrelle bat

The common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipstrellus) is the smallest and commonest bat found in the United Kingdom. 

The pipstrelle weighs between 3 and 10 grams and has a wingspan of 15-25 cms. 

The body is covered in brown fur. They have large black ears and narrow wings that are actually membranes stretched between elongated fingers. Strong claws on the feet enable them to hang upside down when roosting. 

During summer months, pipistrelles can often be seen swooping and diving in a characteristically jerky flight during the late evening over gardens as they feed on flying insects such as moths. A single bat can eat as many as 3,000 insects in one night. 

Pipistrelles roost in buildings, being able to squeeze through narrow gaps to find dry and sheltered spots. 

Female pipistrelles give birth in Autumn. In the UK it is usual for them to raise only one young, but twin births are more common in continental Europe. 

© John Welford

Scorpion fly

There is no surprise about how the scorpion fly (Panorpa communis) got its name. However, this little monster presents no danger to any living creature, with the swollen scorpion-like tail – which only males possess – only being used during mating.

Scorpion flies are found in gardens, hedges and woodland, where they feed mainly on dead insects. They have strong mouthparts that enable them to bite through tough skins.

They are about 1.5 cm ling with a 3 cm wingspan. Their long thin wings have dark markings. They also have long antennae.

The larva of the scorpion fly resembles a caterpillar.

Although the scorpion tail might give the impression that the female fly is at risk during mating, it is actually the male whose life is at stake, given the female’s predilection for eating her mate given half a chance. A male scorpion fly will offer the female a gift of a drop of saliva in the hope of living to tell the tale.

© John Welford

Bird's-foot

Bird’s-foot (Ornithopus perpusillus) gets its name from its slightly curved, pointed pods, which could be seen as resembling bird’s claws. 

It is common throughout Britain, apart from the far north, preferring well-drained sandy or gravelly soils. Although it is a native British species, bird’s-foot is more common in continental Europe as far east as Poland and as far north as southern Sweden.

Bird’s-foot grows up to 18 inches in height (45 cms). 

The stems, some of which sprawl along the ground, have fine hairs. The leaves are split into pairs of leaflets, with a single leaflet at the tip. The first leaflets are often close to the stem and curved backwards.

Bird’s-foot flowers from May to August, with each flower-stalk carrying several small blossoms. The flowers, which are white with red veins, normally pollinate themselves. A characteristic feature of bird’s-foot is a leaf-like bract that grows immediately below the cluster of flowers.

Bird’s-foot is a member of the pea family and produces its seeds in curved pods. However, the pods are segmented with one seed per segment. When ripe, the pods break apart one segment at a time.

 © John Welford

Goat's-rue

Goat’s-rue (Galega officinalis) is widely found on damp and waste ground in Great Britain. The alternative name of French lilac comes from the belief that the plant was introduced from France as an ornamental flowering plant but then escaped into the wild. Its origins actually lie in eastern and southern Europe, where it is grown as a fodder crop. 

It is often seen in derelict gardens where it swamps smaller plants and forms big bushy domes covered with white or lilac flowers. 

Goat’s-rue is an upright bushy plant that grows to between 24 and 57 inches (60-145 cm) in height. 

The leaves comprise stems with 4 to 12 pairs of leaflets with a single leaflet at the tip. In June and July the flowers appear, these being on upright spikes and lilac, pale pink or white in colour. The petals have a narrow, elongated base. 

The pods of the fruiting head are about one inch long, straight and smoothly rounded. There are several seeds to each pod.

© John Welford

We're just like ants!

John Lubbock was a naturalist who was at work during the late 19th century.

He undertook a special study of ants, and during one of his experiments he intoxicated some of them with alcohol and waited to see how their group behaviour was affected when the ants were at a distance from their nest. He noticed that if the drunk ants were from the same nest as the sober ones, the latter would help the former to get home safely. However, if a "stranger" ant came across a drunk ant it would be quite likely to push it into the nearest ditch!

Are humans any better in their behaviour?

© John Welford

Common bird's-foot-trefoil

Common bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is found in all parts of the British Isles in pastures, dry grasslands and on roadsides.

It has many alternative names, including “God Almighty’s thumb and finger”, “crow-toes” and “lady’s shoes and stockings” – indeed more than 70 folk names have been recorded for this plant, most of them referring to specific features of its appearance, such as the shoe-like flowers and the seed pods that resemble fingers or claws. The official name also refers to the pod shape and the division of the leaves into three leaflets, although there are also two other leaflets that grow close to the stem.

Common bird’s-foot-trefoil grows to a height of between 4 and 16 inches (10-40 cm). The upright stems grow from a solid woody stem that trails along the ground. The plant flowers from June to September.

The yellow flowers sometimes have red flushes or streaks that give rise to another of the 70 folk names, “bacon and eggs”. Butterflies are attracted to the flowers for nectar, but it is heavier insects such as bees and wasps that are responsible for pollination. Their weight forces pollen to be deposited on their bodies by the flower’s stamen and for pollen from a visit to another flower to be gathered by the stigma.

The butterflies mentioned above may well be those of the green hairstreak and dingy skipper, for both of which the common bird’s-foot-trefoil is a food plant for their caterpillars.

When the seed pods are ripe they twist and split – looking particularly claw-like – to release their seeds, several to each pod.

© John Welford