BOTANY ON THE MALVERN HILLS
All information supplied by Keith Barnett & from his book"The Wild Flowers of the Malvern Hills"
Photographs by Keith Barnett
The wild flowers to look out for month by month
JULY
BROOKLIME Veronica beccabunga L.
Also known as Water Pimpernel, Brooklime is a common plant of shallow streams, ditches and other wet places. It is a fleshy, often reddish, perennial with prostrate rooting stems, erect branches and spikes of white-centred bright blue flowers (rarely pink or white). Brooklime was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon leechdom (healing) books, where it was called brokelempe, meaning 'growing in the mud of brooks'. Rich in Vitamin C, the edible pungent leaves were formerly sold on the streets of London to sailors as an early form of dietary supplement to prevent scurvy.
COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Druce) Soó
The Common Spotted Orchid is the county's most common orchid, often found in large numbers in damp woods and meadows, which can be found on Malvern Common and in some quantity on Castlemorton Common. Growing up to 50 cm high, it has dense spikes of pale purple or lilac flowers, spotted or streaked with deeper purple, although pure white ones are occasionally seen. The largest leaves usually have a dark elongated spot. The name Orchis comes from the Greek orkhis, a testicle, alluding to the pair of tubers from which the flower stem arises. About this, Vernon Rendall in his 'Wild Flowers in Literature' (1934) amusingly wrote ''All the Orchises were regarded as aphrodisiacs. Shocked at this coarseness, Ruskin in his 'Proserpina' proposes to banish the word 'Orchis' and substitute 'Wreathewort' instead. This delicacy made no impression on the Victorian world, and certainly has no chance today''
RED CLOVER Trifolium pratense L.
Red Clover is a perennial of fields, grassy places and waysides which has many other attractive country names including King's Crown, Sweet Kitty Clover, Sleeping Maggie and Bee-Bread. Because of the very sweet honey in the flowers it is also known as Sugar Plums. The flower colour is actually more a pinkish-purple than a true red, although (rarely) flowers may be cream or white. The trifoliate leaf typical of the clovers is the origin of the black 'club' on a playing card. More spiritually, trefoil leaves have pre-Christian associations with the triad goddesses of the Greeks and Romans and the sacred sun wheel of the Celts, and the Druids venerated them as a symbol of earth, sea and heaven. Later, they were often carved in church architecture, and living plants representing the Trinity used in decorations on Trinity Sunday. The 'lucky' four-leaved clover is also a Christian symbol, representing the form of the cross. A two-leaved clover was supposed to enable a maid to foresee her future lover. A five-leaved clover, however, was thought to be unlucky.
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