A Meadow of Red Campion
There is a walk I like doing, down the lane and back along a narrow footpath edging the fields surrounding the village.
As I join the footpath I’m met with a glorious swathe of pink – a meadow planted with Red Campion – looking so utterly beautiful that I had to go and sit by it.
Occasionally there is a white flower stalk amongst the billowing pink.
Red Campion displays rose-red flowers. In places where it grows alongside White Campion, the two may hybridise to produce pinky or white blooms. The nectar of the flowers attracts bumblebees and butterflies, and several species of moth feed on the foliage.
Now I’m sitting next to them, the plants are taller than me and I notice their downy stems. The five notched petals are joined at their base to form a tube, which turns a rich purple brown. Male and female flowers are carried on separate plants, which continue to bloom from March to November, with some remaining through the winter.
Red Campion is most often associated with lightly shaded areas such as hedgerows, coppice and woodland clearings. Female plants produce thousands of seeds (the crushed seeds are known as a treatment for snake bites) per season which can remain viable in the soil for many years until conditions are right for germination – it seems 2015 is a good year for it!
8 Comments
2015 is definitely the best year for Red Campion I can remember, ever. What a glorious site that meadow is.
The conditions must just have been perfect for it, interesting you are having abundance too. I met dog walkers on my way back, who had come through the wood and they were exclaiming about the wild flowers growing there too, so I must go that route soon.
beautiful! it’s weird how some years are just right for some things and some years just right for others. last spring the indian paintbrush filled field after field, this year not so much.
Seems to have been an amazing year here for blossom too, haven’t heard of paintbrush, will have to look it up!
Wow, Wow, this looks lovely, what a sight to see beautiful photos…
Amanda xx
It was such a surprise to see the pinky red colours, and certainly wowed me!
That is quite an amazing sight Jennifer.
Isn’t it just! Keep being drawn back for another view.