Composition

If possible, start by finding out what variety of fruit tree you’re looking at.  There are lots of experts out there, and some apple-specific websites such as Fruit i.d. and the national fruit collection.   There are subtle differences in colour, growth patterns, and size and shape of petals; as well as bigger variation between the apples each variety produces.

Blossom is often clustered at the tip of a branch, may grow off sideways from a stem, or is produced on lateral spurs.  This needs to be reflected in the drawing.  If there’s lots of variation, I’ll include two bunches of blossom.

Two views of blossom from the same tree

As always, slightly curve straight lines of twigs, and leave plenty of white space around your subject.

Specimens and blossom care

A major challenge of painting blossom is that the flowers are so ephemeral.  Buds unfurl, stamens expand, petals stretch outward and fall.  You can cosset your blossom to try and make it last longer.

If it’s a small sprig, you can put it with a little moist tissue in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge.

Keeping blossom in the dark somewhere cool, like a cellar or garden shed, also helps to delay the blossom burst.

On the other hand, you may have buds you want to come into flower.  Encourage them by putting them somewhere warm, in direct sun.  Placing your specimen under a bell jar or in a greenhouse will also speed things along.

Apple blossom growing from the tip of a branch and from a spur twig

Caring for blossom as you paint

Once you’re at your desk, drawing, it’s something of a race against time.  You can keep the room you’re working in really cold.  This makes the flowers unfurl slower, and buys you a couple more hours.  It’s not pleasant, though.

Draw fast.  I get the basic measurements done right away, using callipers or a ruler.  I always take lots of photos before lifting a pencil.

Make sure the cut end of the twig is wet.  I use plastic test tubes held in a desk clamp.  The specimen stays in water but isn’t resting on the side of a jam jar. It is is held still, in the position I chose to draw it in, and I can move the angle of the plant without touching the blossom.

Apple blossom specimen held in test tube with a desk clamp

It’s also vital to have more than one specimen. This means if something happens to the flower I’m working with, I can refer to another one for the missing information.

If my illustration takes more than a day, I store my specimens somewhere cool and dark overnight instead of leaving them out on the desk.

Colours

Apple blossom tends to be white, flushed with pink.  Within this, there are a multitude of nuances.  Some flowers have a general pale flush, others only show the pink on veins on the petals.  Most have far pinker buds than opened blossoms.

The buds are amazing.  In many cases, as they unfurl, you can see a sharp delineation between white and deep pink.  The pink is where the bud was exposed to sunlight, the white is the petal that was hidden.

Apple blossom buds unfurling, showing the stark difference between pink and white.

I tend to use various ratios of Opera Rose, Cobalt Blue, Permanent Magenta, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, and Winsor Violet to try and capture the pinks.

Some blossoms have intensely coloured buds, almost purple.

Purplish buds

Another challenge is that the hue of pink seems to alter massively depending on whether I look at in in daylight, artificial light, or direct sun.  Pinks also become more purple as the day progresses.

White petals can be outlined in pencil, or with a neutral grey.  I like a neutral mix of Alizarin Crimson mixed with Winsor Green (Yellow hue).  The veins, if not pink, tend to be a yellowish green, and are often indistinct.

Flower veins, changing from yellow-green near the centre, to pink

Shadows

Representing petal edges, and shadows on pale flowers is always tricky.  You need to show them, but it’s important to keep the flower white.  For more on this see my blog on painting white flowers.  Placing a darker leaf behind a blossom is one solution.

Blossom with leaves behind it.  No need to outline the petal edges.

Adding drop shadows, where a petal casts its’ shadow on the one below it, can look really effective.  Again, don’t overdo it.  A dilute Cobalt Blue mixed with Winsor Violet, or Cerulean Blue are all worth trying.

Detail showing blue shadows on a bud

Drop shadows help separate the two flowers and their petals

Anthers and stamens

Surprisingly, the pollen-producing stamens of the apple seem to change colour.  When newly opened, the anthers are a pale creamy yellow. (For more on the parts of a flower, check out my blog). Once mature, they turn a rich red, or even dark brown.  They can often be a wide variety of colours in one flower.  The filaments vary too, from a fresh yellow-green to a colour closer to Yellow Ochre.

Different coloured anthers in one flower.

Petal drop

Petals dropping is the toughest challenge of all.  You’ll be in the middle of illustrating the venation where a petal curls over itself and…poof!  The petal is gone.  I try to work with the fallen petal, but this is where the reference photos I took earlier come into their own.

None of my photos show this stressful moment, or even the desk at the end of a day where every single blossom has fallen to pieces.  I think I’m too busy panicking to get the camera out!  The pear below shows me working from two specimens.  Neither is the flower I initially drew.  It shed its’ petals a few hours earlier. I had to make do with under-studies.  It’s a familiar story.

The main thing is to stay calm.  And trust that the initial drawing shows the petal shape correctly.

Beautiful blossom

So yes, there are challenges.  But the spring-time beauty of apple blossom more than counter-balances this.

Capturing the fresh green of an uncurling leaf, the magenta flush of a bud, the nuances of a pale pink vein on a petal.  All of these are joyful.

There’s also the pleasure of trying to depict the twigs as accuratley as possible.  Are they grey or brown, or green?  Is lichen present?  Are there leaf scars?  Lenticels?  Is there a colour switch between the main twig and lateral branches?

Twig with leaf scars, buds, lenticels and lichen

The leaves are young, so the greens are fresh.  Illustrating tiny holes and leaf damage is a lot of fun too, as well as being true to life.

Leaf with damage

Conclusion

Whenever I illustrate from life, there are challenges.  These are often the same across the board.  Keeping flowers fresh is difficult whether you’re painting apple blossom or a sweet pea.  Colours change because of time of day, or because a plant has been picked.

Sweet peas also change colour once picked

Leaves and petals move, buds unfurl.  Specimens are alive, so they change. Some are more resilient than others, and over time you learn which ones are ok with being picked and which are not.  A periwinkle might last several days in a jar of water.  A hellebore or magnolia is hard-pressed to manage more than an hour or so.  I take photos.  I have lots of specimens to work with.  I’ve got better at drawing fast, before the plant wilts.  All of this helps.

Periwinkle are pretty robust once picked

But ultimately I like the fact that the plants I illustrate can be so challenging.  It’s a reminder to respect them as living, changing organisms.  And to relish their beauty, fleeting as it may be.

Another apple blossom variety

The post Illustrating apple blossom appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Distribution and adaptability

Dandelions are incredibly common, growing in meadows, gardens, cracks in the pavement, and almost anywhere with enough soil for them to establish themselves.  They’re adaptable and brilliant at colonizing new environments.  They grow fast.  However, they’re not great at competing against other plants, unless the area they grow in is repeatedly mown or damaged.

They can handle being mown because, unlike many wildflowers, they have really long tap roots.  When a mower destroys the plant above ground, dandelions can re-grow from the submerged root.  This re-growth happens long before other wildflowers can begin again, germinating and emerging as seedlings.

Dandelion plant showing tap root

Dandelion flowers: Ray florets and the Asteraceae

One of the things that makes dandelions so beautiful is their vivid bright colour.  Slightly paler on the outer edges, they are often off-set by verdant grass, and really glow.

Dandelion flowering head

Dandelions are members of the Asteraceae family, they are composite flowers.  This means that every yellow “petal” you see is actually a flower in it’s own right, complete with miniscucle reproductive structures.

If you look at a daisy (another composite flower) with a hand lens, you can see little yellow disc florets (which make up the central yellow part) and white ray florets which encircle it.  The whole assemblage of flowers is called the capitulum and is held within tiers of involucral bracts, which serve the same protective purpose as sepals and the calyx.

Daisy florets: Ray and disc types.

Unlike many Asteraceae

Unlike many members of the Asteraceae, Dandelions do not have disc florets, only ray florets with the one long, distinctive ligule.  Get a magnifier and look closely.  You’ll be able to see the tiny stamens in each and every one.

Ray floret and close up of the stamens and reproductive structure.

Dandelion involucral bracts

Dandelion buds are beautiful things.  Compact and slightly square, they are neatly encased in the involcural bracts.  these are sometimes called phyllaries, or tegules.  Below the capitulum there are leafier bracts, arranged in two rows.

Dandelion bud

The involucral bracts are really important for species identification.  Sometimes they have glands or are striped.  Those of dandelions have slightly darker tips.  They remain after the flower has wilted, encasing the structure until the seeds emerges as the instantly recognizable dandelion clock.

Dandelion flower after wilting and before becoming a seed head.

Dandelion seed heads

One of the most familiar things about dandelions is their beautiful spherical seed heads, sometimes called clocks. Telling the time with a dandelion clock  is much a part of growing up as plucking daisy petals and saying “loves me, loves me not”, or playing conkers.  How many blows does it take until every seed is dispersed?  That’s what time it is.

Dandelion seed head

Their little brown seeds, known as achenes, are attached to the remains of the capitulum at the centre of the structure.  The globe is created by the umbrellas of fluff, or pappas, that are held erect on a stalk above each seed.

Dandelion clock with most of the seeds dispersed

Dandelion seeds

Each seed is carried by the breeze, on a windy day they can travel 5 or 6 miles.  According to the Smithsonian, some are recorded as having travelled 500 miles!  Seeds are viable for several years, although most will be dead within 5 years (Garden organic).  Each flowering head produces about 400 seeds, so over one season, a lone dandelion plant could make several thousand of them.  With a 90% germination rate, that’s impressive.

Dandelion seeds

This dispersal, viability, and the sheer numbers of seeds helps explain why dandelions appear on every continent but Antarctica.

Dandelion leaves

The leaves of dandelion are lobed.  They have pointed side teeth, not neccesarilly opposite each other, which vary in size.  In most cases they have a larger terminal lobe.

Dandelion leaf

Leaf shape is enormously variable in dandelions, both within species (more of which later) and within one plant.  Each dandelion species, and each individual plant, has a distinct leaf shape that it replicates, but this alters as the season progresses.  Botanists identify dandelions early in the year, relying on the outermost (oldest, and first emerging) leaves as a guide.

Pencil dandelion leaf

Environmental conditions affect the leaves.  They tend to be simpler in shaded conditions, and may even be undivided.  Leaves grown in arid conditions, or where there is lots of mowing and high foot traffic tend to have a more complicated pattern of teeth.  Leaves that grow later in the season tend to be more complex shapes, although, as mentioned above, they are still based on the same blueprint.  These late leaves may have much larger terminal lobes.

Dandelion leaf study

The teeth of the leaves explain the etymology of the name.  Dandelion comes from the French, “Dent de Lion” or Lion’s teeth.  The bastardization is easy to see.

Asexual reproduction and dandelions

Almost all British dandelions reproduce asexually, every seedling is an exact clone of its’ mother,  This process is known as Apomixis.

Drawbacks mean that if a damaging mutation develops, it will not be diluted through reproductive gene mixing, and that particular plant will die out swiftly.

However, if a mutation is advantageous, it can dominate the population in no time.  Did you know that 16% of dandelions in the UK don’t produce pollen?  If you’re practising apomixis, pollen production is a costly and entirely unnecesary process.  Plants which don’t waste energy this way have a competitive edge.

Drawing a dandelion flower

Why botanists despair of dandelions

In the UK alone, there are 235 species or subspecies of dandelion, 150 of which are native.  Telling them apart is incredibly difficult as the differences between species is not constant.  Dandelions are incredibly plastic, adapting to changes to their environment.  One plant will have many phenotypes.  This explain why the task of separating dandelions to species level is so hard.

Dandelion plant

In Field handbook to British and Irish Dandelions (Richards 2021), there were only 51 dandelion experts listed worldwide, the earliest from 1798.  Compare this to botanists whose field of expertise is roses.  There are 39 Rose societies in the World Federation of Rose Societies.  The US branch has over 8,500 members while the National Rose Society in the UK had over 100,00 members at it’s peak.

As the BSBI, (source of much of the dandelion information in this blog) states, “dandelions are almost virgin territory for anyone wanting to research this plant group.”

Finding and recording Taraxacum luteum

When out with the Brecknockshire Botany county recorder recently, we found a wonderful species of dandelion, Taraxicum luteum.  Its’ main distinguishing feature was meant to be a bright, almost fluorescent yellow colour.  However, we found the pinkish bracts being pressed against the capitulum, and the absence of any dark lines on the back of the ray florets a far more useful indicator.  They also all seemed to have purplish stems, and central ribs of the leaves were flushed red too.

Taraxacum luteum from below

This species appears in the Flora of Brecknockshire, on the same site.  This comprehensive book (which I was lucky enough to collaborate on), was published last month. Luckily the book won’t have to be updated for this species of dandelion!

Health and Eating dandelions

Dandelions are natural diuretics, and can help fight cellulite and water retention.  In fact, the French name for dandelion is “Pissenlit”, which literally translates as pee in the bed.  This reflects their diuretic properties!  The roots can be made into a coffee substitute; the leaves can be eaten raw if young, and fried with butter when older.  Buds can be mixed into a pasta sauce with olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper.  Even the flowers can make decorative additions to salads and deserts.

Illustrating a dandelion in pencil

Conclusion

It’s easy to like dandelions.  Vilified by gardeners, disregarded as weeds, ignored by botanists.  They are beautiful, tenacious, adaptable, fascinating, edible, and instantly recognizable.  Harbingers of spring, and excellent for pollinators like the honey bee, there’s so much more to dandelions than meets the eye.  And a whole lot to love.

The post Dandelions: Why to love them appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

The first featured crop is Ginseng, Panax ginseng.

Ginseng: Description

Ginseng is a member of the Apiaceae, or carrot family.  It has three to six palmate leaves with serrated leaflets; each leaf has 3 to 5 leaflets.  Clusters of 30 to 50 small red flowers are borne on long peduncles, and produces bright red berries, with white kidney-shaped seeds.  The plant reaches up to 60cm in height.  However, it’s not the leaves, flowers, or berries that are the focus of ginseng use.  It is the root, which tends to be cylindrical and have 2 branches.

Leaf of ginseng plant

Ginseng: Distribution and History of use

The ginseng is native to temperate mountainous woodland zones in Korea, NE China, and the far east of Russia.  It is now cultivated in many other countries where growing conditions can be met; including Canada, Japan, and the USA.

The first written mention of ginseng is from 2,000 years ago, although there is evidence is was used as far back as 4,500 years ago (Journal of Ginseng research. March 2013).  It’s Latin name, Panax ginseng, contains the etymological root “Panax” meaning all-healing.  This is also the same root as the word for a cure-all, a panacea.

Ginseng: Preparation and cookery

Ginseng root can be used fresh or dried.  In its’ fresh form, raw ginseng, it is 75% water, so can’t be stored for long.  It is used in traditional Chinese and Korean recipes, often in soups.

There are two dry forms. White ginseng is sun-dried from raw, and thinly peeled.  It can be straight, curved, or semi-curved. Red ginseng is steamed before being dried, and can last up to 20 years.  This red ginseng makes up the majority of health food supplements and nutritional additives which are sold in many forms.  It can be eaten in teas, drinks, as tablets, in candy, as powder, and as extracts.

Ginseng: Medicinal uses

As a cure-all, the ailments treated with ginseng are wide-ranging.  They include kidney, liver, reproductive and cardiovascular ailments; as well as a tonic for general well being.  It’s also been claimed it is a cure for alopecia; and a preventative for flu, diabetes, and cancer.  In ancient China and Korea, it was used as a love potion, and more recently it has been used to treat erectile dysfunction (“Red ginseng for treating erectile dysfunction: a systematic review” British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2008).  For more on the history of Ginseng use, click here.

Ginseng root contains antioxidants and vitamins (such as B1, B2, B3, B5, and B12).  Trace elements found in ginseng include zinc, copper, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, vanadium, potassium, sodium and phosphorus; along with volatile oil polysaccharides, pectins, and sterols. (Journal of Ginseng Research 2023).  They also contain ginsenocides which may be useful in combating disorders due to old age. ( “Panax ginseng and aging related disorders: A systematic review” de Oliveira Zanuso et al Experimental Gerontology 2022)

Ginseng root

There is little clinical proof of the medicinal benefits of ginseng use (“Panax ginseng”. MedlinePlus, 2024), although it may have some effect on general health and in reducing stress levels.  It can react unfavourably with other drugs such as anticoagulants like Warfarin, with diabetic medicines, and over 100 drugs are known to interact with it (Drugs.com).

 As with many established folk medicines, the fact that it has been in constant use for over 2,000 years carries some weight.

Ginseng berries

Ginseng: Commercial considerations

Four countries produce 99% of the world’s ginseng.  In 2013 this was 80,080 tons, with a value of $2,084 million.  Canada, the USA, and South Korea run second to South China where roughly half of the world’s ginseng is produced.

As the Journal of Ginseng Research puts it, over ten years ago, “Since the interests in alternative medicine and healthy food is increasing globally, the consumer market of ginseng…is expected to expand continuously.” (Journal of Ginseng research. March 2013)

Conclusion

Before illustrating this plant, I knew little about it.  I know you can get ginseng tea, and that it is important in Chinese and Korean traditional medicine.  The wide ranging cures and effects attributed to it amaze me, as does the commercial importance of this crop.  I am equally surprised by the appearance of the plant, with those stunning scarlet berries!

Botanical illustration is full of surprises, and doing the Ginseng illustration for the Crops Trust is another example of just that.  Keep an eye out for blogs on the other three crops illustrated; namely Pearl millet, the Date palm, and the Olive.

The post Crop Trust illustration: Ginseng appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Third page of the FSC guide to Socttish Urban plants

Why a guide to urban plants?

Plants are incredibly resilient, and many species have managed to carve out a niche despite all the tarmac and concrete in our towns and cities.  We often overlook these plants, or disregard them as “weeds”.  But there is an enormous amount of variety in the plants of urban spaces, and they’re well worth examining closer.

As the guide points out, “Although urban plants are easy to dismiss as ‘weeds’, they have many fascinating adaptations that are worthy of a second look. Some have a fast lifecycle, tolerating limited space, not much soil, and highly fluctuating temperatures and moisture. Others spread quickly through stolons and rhizomes to form large stands. Old walls have specialist plants all of their own, especially where there is soft lime mortar.” (FSC publications 2025)

Wall rue Asplenium ruta-muraria

What makes a plant an Urban species?

As the write up on FSC’s site states, “Since 2015 the Botanical Society of Scotland has been recording urban plants in Scotland, defined as settlements with at least 1000 inhabitants. Volunteer recorders have searched streets, car parks, golf courses, cemeteries, waste ground and many other places. Anything deliberately planted was excluded, but anything that had spread by itself was included.

Currently there are nearly 80,000 records, with over 1200 vascular plant species found so far. This guide covers the most common non-woody species among these records.” (FSC publications 2025)

FSC broke the urban plants featured into categories depending on their habitat and provenance.

Chinese bramble Rubus tricolor

Urban plants: Walls and Buildings

Every one of the species in this section grows on the churchyard wall opposite my house.  This makes life very much easier as I can get fresh material to work with both when drawing up roughs, and when adding colour.  It also shows something of the geographical spread of these plants.

Common polypody Polypodium vulgare

There are several similar species of Polypody fern in the UK, and I struggled to be certain which one I was drawing.  The BSBI produce “crib sheets”, pdfs comparing and contrasting similar species.  The one on Polypody ferns proved very useful.  There’s also a good video from the Botanical Society of the British Isles on these ferns if you’d like to learn more.

Wall lettuce Lactuca muralis grows at the base of the churchyard wall, and was just coming into flower.  I recognized it immediately, but had never stopped to i.d. it before.  One of the many things my job gives me is a reason to stop and look at plants differently and closer than before.

Wall lettuce Lactuca muralis

Growing on the wall in my garden is the Wall bellflower Campanula portenschlagiana.  In late May, the whole of the front garden wall is blue with it.  I was surprised to find there are two similar bell flower species.  Again, time was needed to untangle them and ensure I was illustrating the correct species.  Online resources such as the Botany in Scotland blog proved very helpful.

Wall or Dalmatian bellflower Campanula portenschlagiana

Urban plants of Scotland i.d. guide : Walls & buildings, and Garden escapes

Urban plants: Garden escapes

Many of the plants seen in urban settings are garden escapes.  This isn’t surprising.  However, it does mean lots of urban plants are quite blousy.  One example is the Opium poppy Papaver somniferum.

This is a plant I’ve been wanting to paint for a long time, but never had the opportunity.  I was surprised to find the commonest colour of the bloom is mauve, not a deep red.  Like many plants, the Opium poppy has glaucous, waxy leaves.  This means using lots of Cobalt Blue and even some white when it comes to colour mixing.

Opium poppy Papaver somniferum

Another garden escape is the Hybrid bluebell Hyacinthoides x massartiana.  This is a cross between the UK’s native bluebell, and the Spanish bluebell which is often grown in gardens from bulb.  Telling your Spanish bluebell from your native species, and figuring out whether or not you’re looking at a hybrid is mighty confusing.  I did a blog a few years back, trying to untangle them.

Hybrid bluebell Hyacinthoides x massartiana

It was interesting to see that the Welsh poppy Meconopsis cambrica appears in this section.  Where I live, on the border between England and Wales, the Welsh poppy is a wild flower, not a garden escape.

Welsh poppy Meconopsis cambrica

Urban plants: Pavements

The species in this habitat were also a bit tough to untangle as superficially Thale cress, Hairy bitter-cress, and Shepherd’s purse look alike.  It doesn’t take long with a botany bible like Stace’s New Flora of the British Isles and the gorgeous line drawings of Stella Ross-craig to be able to tell them apart with no trouble. Two of them grow, by chance, in pots in my garden.  Thale cress I had to look for a little harder.  It’s an important plant as it’s used as a model in genetics research.  The genome of Thale cress was the first plant genome to be sequenced.  A small weed with a big impact.

Thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana Hairy bittercress Cardamine hirsuta and Sherherds purse Capsella bursa-pastoris

Annual meadow grass was one of only 4 grass species on the whole list.  I can’t believe I’ve not illustrated it before, it’s very common and very pretty!  I started on these illustrations in the depth of winter, and as Annual meadow grass is the only UK grass species to flower year round, it made identification super-easy.  The crinkled leaf blade is another useful diagnostic.

Annual meadow grass Poa annua

Urban plants of Scotland i.d. guide : Pavements

Some of the pavement species are ones I’ve illustrated before.  This includes the Pineapple weed Matricaria discoidea, Broad-leaf Willow-herb Epilobium montanum, and Chickweed Stellaria media.  I know I always go on about it, but an illustrator gets paid for each illustration used, whether or not it already exists.  Hang onto your copyright, illustrators!  Re-use fees make the notoriously low-paid job of an illustrator (almost) a viable career.

Pineapple mayweed Matricaria discoidea

Urban plants: Grassy places & parkland

Some of the prettiest species featured in the guide grow in this ecological niche.  I’d completed all but one of the plants featured in this section for other jobs; it was a pleasure to re-assess them and make sure they still pass muster. One of my favourite wildflowers, Fox and Cubs Pilosella aurantiaca, makes an appearance.  After years of cajoling, I finally have a flourishing population of these flowers in my garden.

Orange hawkbit Fox and Cubs Pilosella aurantiaca

Likewise, with some careful neglect, I now have a healthy amount of Self heal Prunella vulgaris and White clover Trifolium repens growing in my lawn.  It makes me happy, helps protect the grass from drought, and is good for the pollinators.

Self heal Prunella vulgaris

The species in this section that I’d not yet painted is the common Daisy, Bellis perennis.  It’s odd, with the species I get asked to illustrate, sometimes the most ubiquitous plants fall through the cracks.  I’ve been illustrating plants for 25 years, and this is the first time I’ve been asked to illustrate a daisy.  It was a real joy to find the perfect specimen on the lawn and rectify the situation. The illustration takes the basal rosette of one plant and the flowering heads of another.  The benefits of illustrations instead of photography (for more about my feelings on this, check out my FAQ section, but be prepared for a balanced view.  Both are vital tools.).

Daisy Bellis perennis

Urban plants of Grassland and parks: In defence of Ragwort

I wish I’d been able to add the caterpillar of the Cinnibar moth Tyria javobaeae when I illustrated Common ragwort Jacobeae vulgaris.

Ragwort Jacobeae vulgaris or Senecio jacobaea

They’re black and yellow striped, and are really common on the plant.  I know there is a lot of anger towards Ragwort, as the plants can be toxic to livestock.  Sadly, this has been massively over-emphasized, and the mass clearance of this plant has had dreadful effects on the beautiful black and red Cinnibar moth.

Cinnibar moth Tyria jacobaeae

As the Botanic Gardens of Wales say, “Butterfly Conservation’s 2006 report on the state of Britain’s larger moths showed that the cinnabar had declined by 83%, classing it as ‘Vulnerable’.  While this dramatic change is likely due to many reasons, there is little doubt that misconception surrounding the toxicity of ragwort to livestock is a contributing factor to its decline. Farmers and landowners have been encouraged to eradicate the plant to minimise the risks of poisoning. However, ragwort poses little threat to livestock or humans unless considerable amounts are consumed daily, and the only real risk is posed when dried in hay, where it loses its acrid taste. As cinnabar caterpillars feed exclusively on ragwort and groundsel their slow eradication from our countryside poses a major threat to the survival of this species.”

Urban plants of Scotland i.d. guide : Grassy places and parklands pages

Conclusion

What surprised me as I worked on this guide, was just how many of the Urban plants noted in Scotland were equally common here in mid Wales, and down in London.  It’s a testament to the incredible adaptability of some of our plants.  They are filling niches that didn’t exist 150 years ago, and thriving.  Many more species can not make the transition, however, and become rarer and rarer as the urban sprawl continues to eat into the countryside.  Even more reason to care for the wild flower species we do still have, and to celebrate those that we get to see in our cities as well as in the countryside.  And to stop labelling them all as weeds, and trying to eradicate them from our pavements, walls, brownfield sites, and parkland.

Purple toadflax Linaria purpurea

The post Guide to Urban Plants of Scotland illustrations appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

The Horse chestnut is easily recognized, with distinctive palmate leaves and an autumnal crop of conkers.  It was introduced from Turkey around the 1600s, and is a common tree in parklands and towns, but occurs less often in woodland.

Identification: Tree shape

The tree grows up to 40m tall and has a wide, domed canopy with foliage coming low down the tree.  Trees live up to 300 years.  It grows fast in most soils, and needs plenty of space.

Identification: Leaves

Horse chestnut leaves are palmate, consisting of 5 – 7 sharp-tipped leaflets arranged like the fingers of an outstretched hand.  Each leaflet can be 30cm long, making for impressively large leaves.

The leaf margins are toothed, and each leaflet has clear alternate lateral veins.  They’re a rich green colour.  For more on leaf margins click here.  For a blog on compound vs simple leaves click this link, and tips on leaf shape can be found here.

Identification: Flowers

The flowers of the Horse chestnut grow in a clustered tower of up to 50 flowers, known as a panicle.  These are sometimes referred to as candles.  Branches of the panicle are longer at the base than the top, creating a cone shape.  The uppermost flowers are male, those in the middle are both sexes, and the lowest ones are all female.

 They have a distinctive shape with bilateral symmetry.  Each flower is 9-11mmm long and has 5 fringed white petals, with a yellow patch at the base.  Once pollinated, this turns from yellow to dark pink.  This may communicate to visiting insects that the flower is no longer worth visiting as it has ceased providing nectar post fertilization.

Identification: Fruit

Horse chestnut seeds are known as conkers.  Only 5 or so flowers per panicle develop into conkers.

The conker is instantly recognizable.  Encased in a pale yellow-green, spiked case; conkers are a shiny mahogany brown.  This type of seed is known as a capsule by botanists.  (For more on seed types, check out my blog.)

There are 1-3 conkers per fruit, released when the seed case splits three ways at maturity.  Each is up to 4cm across, with the entire fruit measuring up to 7cm

Identification: Bark and buds

The bark is pinkish-grey and thin in young trees, becoming grey-brown and scaly with age.

Buds are distinctive and grow on stout hairless twigs.  They are a rich reddish brown, oval, and very sticky.  Lateral buds are opposite.

When the leaves shed, they leave a distinctive horseshoe-shaped scar.  This could be the source of the tree’s name; although some suggest it relates to the curative flour, made from ground up conkers, that used to be fed to horses.

Similar species

The Indian Horse chestnut, Aesculus indica, native to the Himalayas, is the only similar species.  Like the Horse chestnut, it is planted in parks and public spaces.

However, it follows in June rather than April to May and is a less robust tree.  Indian Horse chestnut conkers are small, dark brown and wrinkled, and held in smooth green seed cases.

History: Folklore

Because the tree was introduced to the UK comparatively recently, there’s not a great deal of folk lore associated with it.

However, the conkers are threaded onto strings and used to play – wait for it – conkers.  The first recorded game occurred in 1848 on the Isle of Wight, although there’s evidence the game was played with other less suitable nuts prior to this.

 To play, you take it in turns to whack your opponent’s conker with your own, the aim being to smash your opponent’s conker to bits.  Baking, pickling in vinegar, and drying for a year or more are all methods thought to toughen up a prize conker.  To this day, kids in the UK play conkers every year (although some well-meaning schools have banned the practice because it’s deemed dangerous).

One foot note is that some think keeping conkers in a room discourages spiders.  My studio has an open box of conkers and a plethora of friendly spiders, so I remain unconvinced.

History: Mankind and Horse chestnut wood

The wood of the Horse chestnut is pale and light.  It is weak and is mainly used to make children’s toys and for carving.  As it’s absorbent, it is also used to make trays for storing fruit, and it was sometimes used to make light weight artificial limbs.

History: Food and Medicine

Conkers were ground up into flour in Victorian times, and used as a coffee substitute during World War 2.  The mildly poisonous nature of the fruit, and its limited appeal has made this practice obsolete.

Flower buds can be used as a substitute for hops in beer brewing

Medicinally, conkers were fed to cattle and horses by Turkish soldiers in the 1600s to cure respiratory disorders.

Varicose veins, haemorrhoids, sprains and bruising can all be treated with Horse chestnut creams which thin the blood.  This makes it harder for blood to leak from veins and capillaries, and is useful in the treatment of water retention and oedema.  Aescin seems to be the active compound at work here, both for animal and human ailments.

Finally, the high levels of saponin made them good for making soap, after crushing and soaking the conkers in boiling water.  They are considered useful as moth deterrents by some.

Horse chestnut and Wildlife

The profusion of flowers provide a welcome treat to pollinating bees in late spring, and the caterpillars of the Triangle moth Trigonodes hyppasia feed on the leaves.

The larva of the Horse chestnut leaf mining moth Cameraria ohridella also feed on the leaves, the caterpillars are part of the diet of birds like the Bluetit.

Threats

Two pests and diseases have taken a firm hold of the Horse chestnut population recently.

The first is the Horse chestnut leaf miner mentioned above.  This insect burrows through the leaves, eating as it goes.  It can make entire trees look ill with blotched, yellowing leaves.  The good news is that there’s little evidence that the caterpillars do any lasting damage, merely altering the appearance of the tree.

The second is Horse chestnut bleeding canker, a more serious threat.  This bacterial infection damages the wood and bark, blocking the tubes of the phloem, making it impossible for the tree to carry water and nutrients.  This eventually kills the tree.

Signs of the canker include oozing dark patches on the trunk, discolouration of the wood, and chunks of bark peeling away.  This canker is becoming more common since it was first noted in the 1970s, and now infects more than 30% of English Horse chestnuts.

Trees also suffer leaf blotching caused by the Guignardia fungus, and are prone to scale insect infestations.

Conclusion

With their beautiful candles of flowers and ornamental stature, Horse chestnuts are handsome trees.  Although of limited practical or culinary use, they are vital to parkland and gardens.  One can but hope that the threats posed by canker and pests don’t end up reducing the population of these trees too seriously.

Online sources for this blog include websites of the Woodland trust, Trees for life, Totally wild, the Tree guide UK, and NatureSpot.  Reference books for this blog include the excellent The Greenwood Trees by Christina Hart-Davies  , and the Reader’s Digest The Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain (out of print but commonly available second-hand).  I also referred to The Tree Forager by Adele Nozedar and The Living Wisdom of Trees by Fred Hageneder.

The post Trees: Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

This is one of a series of blogs I’m writing on common British trees.  You can also see blogs on the Elder, the Yew, the Ash, the Oak, the Holly, the Sycamore, the Rowan, the Hawthorn, the Birch and the Beech.

There are 10 species of Lime in the UK, with three growing commonly in the wild.  Along with the Small-leaved Lime Tilia cordata, the focus of this blog; there is the Common lime Tilia x europea and the Large-leaved (or Broad-leaved) lime Tilia platyphyllos.   Lime trees are often called Linden trees, a catch all for all Tilia  species.

It’s important to remember that these lime trees have nothing to do with the citrus family’s lime tree which bears the lime fruit, Citrus x Latifolia

Identification: Tree shape

The Small-leaved lime reaches up to 20m and has a pretty conventional shape.  They grow in ancient woodland, favouring moist nutrient-rich soils, although Large-leaved limes prefer lime-rich areas.

Lime Tilia cordata tree

Identification: Leaves

Leaves are 3-8cm long and shaped like a heart (as noted in the Latin name, cordata, which means heart-shaped).  They have sharp small teeth and a prominent tip.  Sometimes they are wider than their length.

Leaf of Small-leaved lime

Where the leaf stem or petiole attaches to the twig there are tufts of rust-red hairs.  These also appear on the underside of the leaf, at the junctions of the veins.

Identification: Flowers

The flowers smell delicious and are carried in clusters of five to ten blooms.  They have five petals, are a greenish yellow, and carry male and female reproductive structures.

Lime flower

Unlike other Lime trees, the flowers stick out from the leaf-like bract they’re attached to at all angles.  Other species have more pendulous blossoms.

Flowering cyme of the Small-leaved lime Tilia cordata

Identification: Fruit

Small-leaved lime fruit ripen in August and are small and round.  They have prominent tips.

Identification: Bark and buds

Small-leaved lime bark starts smooth but develops fissured plates with age.  The twigs are chestnut brown, and become glossy in the sunshine.  The underside of the twigs is often flushed olive green.

Bark of the Common lime Tilia x europea

Buds are up to 4mm long, have two scales. and are shiny red.

Similar species

The two other common UK Lime species are the Large-leaved and Common lime.  The Large-leaved lime has bigger leaves which grow to 13cm long and have more regular teeth.  Hairs cover the underside of each leaf.  Large-leaved lime carry flowers in clusters of three to a maximum of six, and the fruits are prominently ribbed.

Large-leaved lime Tilia platyphyllos

Common lime is a hybrid of the other two species so shows mixed characteristics.  It also has heart-shaped leaves which are larger than those of the Small-leaved lime.  The hair tufts on the underside of the leaves are white, not red.  When in bud, Common lime twigs zig-zag and bear a bud at each change of direction.

History: Folklore

In Eastern Europe, the Lime is a symbol of fertility and is considered sacred in Slavic culture.  It has links to the Germanic and Norse earth goddesses Frigga and Freyya.  Germanic cultures in ancient times used the tree as a symbol of justice, with trials taking place beneath its boughs. Tthe Swiss and French planted Lime trees to celebrate battles.  In Britain Lime trees were planted along roads to encourage prosperous harvests of grain.

Linden tree

The tree is also associated with love and romance.

History: Mankind and Linden wood

Lime wood does not warp if cured correctly so is used to make bowls, furniture, and piano keys.  It is soft and light and easy to work.  Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721) carved his ornate alter pieces and panels from lime wood as it cuts cleanly and easily, and traditional nesting Matroshka dolls were carved from Lime.

The inner layer of the bark is fibrous and was used by Europeans and First Nations’ peoples to make rope, fishing nets, and string until Hemp was introduced from China in 400BC.

History: Food and Medicine

The flowers of the Lime tree are dried and made into fragrant herbal teas whilst the sap can be made into wine.

Medicinally, the teas or tissanes made from Lime were used to treat “nervous disorders”.  These included headaches and insomnia.  The tea is said to soothe diarrhoea and sinusitis as well as being used to calm jangled nerves and reduce blood pressure and cholesterol. It was said that sitting under a Lime tree could mitigate epilepsy.

Small-leaved lime

Applied to the skin, it can soothe skin conditions.

Lime trees and Wildlife

The blossoms of the lime tree attract pollinators, and in America Lime tree species are sometimes called “bee trees”.  Linden blossom honey is delicious.  Along with the bees and butterflies, wasps, and hoverflies, the trees also attract vast numbers of aphids and their “farmers”, ants.  All lime trees tend to be coated in honeydew produced by the aphids which makes the leaves sticky and may cover the ground below the tree.  The aphids attract predators such as hoverflies and ladybirds.

Ladybird Coccinella septempuctata

Nail galls are common on the Small-leaved lime and look like tiny scarlet fingers growing from the leaf surface.  They are the product of the Eriophyes tiliae mite which feed inside them, and seem to do no damage to the tree.

Lime Tilia europaea leaf nail galls from mite Eriophyes tiliae

Moths such as the Lime hawkmoth, Peppered moth, Vapourer and Scarce hook-tip use the Lime as a food plant whilst birds and wood boring beetles exploit the dead wood of older trees to make their homes.

Threats

Ancient woodland is a rare habitat in the UK, although it used to cover much of the land.  In 3000BC the Small-leaved lime was the most common broad-leaved tree in the UK.  Ancient woodland is where most Small-leaved limes grow, so the threats to this habitat are mirrored in the threats to the trees.

Some fungal infections can cause cankers and root rot, and occasionally a Lime tree may die from Wilt.

Aphids and some mites weaken the tree, but there are no new fatal diseases wiping out all our Lime trees.

Conclusion

With the scented flowers and heart shaped leaves, Limes are easy to recognize.  They make safe homes for many insects and are a firm favourite with pollinators.  With strong pale wood and a plethora of uses in herbal medicine, the tree has been used by mankind for millennia.  And luckily, despite the loss of ancient broad-leaved woodland, the Lime or Linden looks set to remain an important tree of the British Isles for many years to come.

Small-leaved lime Tilia cordata

Online sources for this blog include websites of the Woodland trust, Kew Plants of the World, Tree guide UK, and Nature Spot. Reference books for this blog include the excellent The Greenwood Trees by Christina Hart-Davies, and the Reader’s Digest The Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain (out of print but commonly available second-hand).  I also referred to The Tree Forager by Adele Nozedar and The Living Wisdom of Trees by Fred Hageneder.

The post Trees: Small-leaved lime or Linden appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Materials

I always use the same materials.  Draw up the flower in pencil, using a Pentel P205 mechanical pencil.  My current favourite paper is Fluid 100 hot press watercolour paper, using Winsor and Newton watercolour paints, and a Winsor and Newton series 7 sable brush (size 1).  In this particular illustration, the colours I’ve used are:  Cadmium yellow, Winsor blue, Cadmium yellow light, Purple, Pthalo green, Ywellow ochre, Cobalt blue, Burnt sienna, Burnt umber, Cadmium orange, Opera pink, Purple lake, and Alizarin crimson.  However, I’m a bit chaotic with my paints; filling up the pans from tubes etc, and am never 100% what the names of the colours I’m using are!

Pencil drawing

I draw up the Great burnet, along with a close up of one flower.  For this, I use excellent online websites such as Wildlfower finder, Nature spot, and Kew’s Plants of the World site; along with my reference books.  These tend to include the New Flora of the British Isles by Stace, HarperCollins Guide to Wild flowers by David Streeter, the collected illustrations of Stella Ross-Craig, and Wild flowers of the British Isles by Streeter and Gerrard.

These resources are vital, especially when the flower I’m drawing isn’t in bloom.

The pencil illustration is done direct onto the watercolour paper and sent to the client for feedback.  Once alterations have been made and approved, I start painting.

Pencil drawing of the Great burnet plant

Step 1: Laying down detail onto the leaves – painting the first side of each leaflet

I start with the leaves, and this first layer gives a lot of information.  I look closely at all my reference, and search for patterns in the way the light falls on the foliage.  Traditionally in botanical illustration, your light comes from top left, so shadows follow this plan.  Once you’ve figured out how the shadows will fall, you can apply this to all the leaves.  Obviously, when I have the plant in front of me it’s far simpler, I just paint what I see.

The mix of colours for the Great burnet is Cadmium yellow, Winsor blue, Cadmium yellow light,  a touch of purple, and a dash of a blue-green, like Pthalo green.  the paint is mixed to the consistency of cream, so looks pretty solid when applied to the paper.

Colour mix for the details of the leaves

In general, if there are lots of dark mid-tones on the left of the central vein of a leaf, you can reproduce this across the plant, flipping sides if you have leaves on both sides of a central axis.  In truth, these are leaflets, paired and opposite on a central stem.  To make the pattern clearer, I initially added the leaf veins, mid-tones, and details to only one side of each leaflet.

Working into the darks on one side of the mid-rib

In the photo below, you can see how one side of every leaflet has been treated in the same way.  The unpaired terminal leaflets need care as they’re not quite the same.  Looking at a similar terminal leaflet for inspiration (I referred to a fallen Rowan leaf) can help untangle your lights and darks.

One side of each leaflet is painted

Step 2: Paint the other side of each leaflet

Using exactly the same paint mix, I plot in the detail on the other side of each leaflet.

If the darks are heavy toward the central vein of a leaf, there’s likely to be less shadow on the other side, with darks seen more towards the leaf edge.  This relates to the physical structure of a leaf.  The reason for a shadow is because something (in this case some of the leaf blade) is casting a shadow.  It’s unusual for both sides of a leaf to bulge up toward the central vein, normally one will hit the light whilst the other sits in its shadow.

You can reduce this to a repeatable pattern.  Again, it’s always better to work from live material if you can, because these regular patterns, even when closely based on reference phtos, aren’t true to nature’s individuality.

Detail with both sides of the leaflets painted in

Once you’ve completed this step, you can see the skeleton of your leaves on the page.  There’s even a visual suggestion of whether or not the final illustration will look realistic, in terms of the balance of lights and darks.

Completed plant with the details of all leaflets plotted in

Detail of Completed leaflet details

Below is a detail showing how the pattern of darks flips on either side of the central leaf-stem.  To see it more clearly, look for where the darks cling to the mid-rib or ventral vein, and then note how that’s flipped in the other leaflet. This also shows the slightly different approach to the shadows falling on the terminal leaflet, basing darks down towards where the stem joins the leaf blade.

In all cases, I keep the central vein white.

In watercolour, your highlights and palest areas are the white of the paper, so you really need to keep these clear of paint in they;re going to be paler than the surrounding areas.  They’ll be knoced back under a colour wash at a later stage.

Detail of two leaflets and a terminal leaflet, plotted in

Sep 3: First top wash on the darker side of each leaflet

Once all the detailing is dry, I put the first wash on top of the painting.  This will only be applied to one side of the leaflets, the darker side.

The paint is the same mix as above, but with some more light yellow, and diluted with clean water.  With watercolour painting, you make a colour paler by diluting it with water, not be adding white.

Using the paint wetter than before, I paint over the whole of one side of the leaf, taking the paitn into the tips of the margin teeth, and allowing it to sit quite wet on the page.

Top wash number 1 – same green mix as before with water and more yellow added

Allowing the paint to dry from a wet puddle means the edges of the paint can give a crisp line which can be very beautiful.  It’s vital to allow the paint to fry fully though, before moving onto the next layer of colour wash.

Applying the top wash to one side of each leaflet

In the photo below you can see how wet the paint is on the page, and how the pigment is concentrated towards the edge of the leaf.  This effect remains once the paint is dry.

Close up of two leaves with wet top wash drying

Below, you can see the whole illustration as that first wash dries on the page.

Whole plant with first wash drying

Step 4: Second wash on leaves

Mix up a paler version of the colour above, using it as your base.  Add water, more yellow, a touch of yellow ochre.  This mix looks really quite watery as it’s quite pale and dilute.

This time, I put the wash on top of both sides of every leaflet; both the side which already has a layer of colour on it, and the other side.  yet again we’re leaving the mid rib veins as white paper.

Top wash mix two: Add water, yellow, and yellow ochre to the first wash

The effect here is that the side of the leaves which already have a dried layer of colour on now appear darker than the ones which have only just had their first layer.  The benefit is that because the colour has covered the entire leaflet, this difference looks natural rather than clunky.

Detail of one leaf with second colour wash drying

When you see this applied to all the leaves on the plant, it doesn’t look too dramatic at all, quite naturalistic.  But that distinction between lighter and darker sided of the leaf remains.

Whole plant with second colour wash drying

As before, it’s crucial to allow the wash to dry completely before continuing to work into the painting.  You can hurry things along if you like, by using a fan heater or a hairdryer.

Step 5: Picking out the darks

I pick out the darkest bits of each leaf with the tip pf my brush, and some judicious decision making.  Don’t add too much dark, or the plant changes colour.  Too little dark, and the leaves look flat.  You want something in between, where the deepest shadows are picked out, but the leaves remain that same hue of green.

The colour we mix here is the same consistency as our first colour, something close to cream.  Colours for this mix are Cobalt blue, purple, and a Pthalo green. It looks less stark when laid on top of the green of the leaves, but I’ll use the same shade to pic out the darkest areas of the flowers and the stem, too.

Mix for the darks: Cobalt blue, Pthalo green (or a blueish green) and purple.

The darkest areas tend to be at the tips of the leaflet teeth, and close to the central margin.  You also need to pop darks where one leaf casts a shadow on top of the one below, and where a leaf curls back on itself.

Working into the darks near the centre of the leaf rosette

In the photo below you can see that the marks made with the dark paint are the same as those initial ones made with the first green.  They’re tiny individual brush marks, following the line of growth.  And they’re certainly not covering the whole of the leaf blade.  Be juducious with these darks or everything gets muddy.

Detail of leaves once the darkest darks have been picked out

Step 6: Stems

Let the leaves dry so you don’t end up resting a hand on wet paint and smudging it.

Now I mix up the colour for the stems.  This is still based on that initial green, but by now it’s become much paler and much more watery. Add lots of yellow to the second top wash, until you get a very yellowish bright green.

Using a steady hand and the tip of the brush, I follow the lines of the stem.  I press slightly harder on the right hand side of the stem, this leaves a marginally thicker line, which registers as a slightly darker edge.

Stem colour mix: All those greens from before (Cadmium yellow, Winsor blue, Cadmium yellow light, Yellow ochre, purple, Pthalo green, extra yellow and LOTS of water)

Let these two lines sit for about 60 seconds; long enough to stain the page but not so long that they’re totally immobile on the paper.  Then I use a more watery version of the stem colour, and with one brush stroke, paint on top.  An extra blob of stem colour at the base and below leaves gives the suggestion of shadow.  Allow to dry

If the stem is ridged, as it is here, be sure to put in an extra line to show the angle.  Once the top layer is dry, you cna add a second layer of colour to show that the stem has a facet which is turned away form us, and which is marginally darker as a result.

Painting the stems and handling the angled, cut stem

Step 7: Outlining the flowers

This mix was a challenge.  The flowers are a really unusual dark brownish red, and I would have loved to have a few actual specimens to look at.  However, I was limited to the colours on engravings and in photos.

This mix, created in a different part of the paint-box to your greens, has that same cream-like consistency.  It’s a mix of Purple, Cadmium orange dark, a pink red like Alizarin crimson, and a warm purple (like purple lake).

Colour of the flowers: Purple, orange, pinkish reds

Outline each flower with this colour, trying not to let the paint to get messy or run.  Once dry, add a bit of blue to your flower colour and paint in the square spaces between the individual florets.

I also put a suggestion of detail at the centre of each floret; just four little lines.  This is to help point the eye to the flower’s middle.

Having outlined each flower, plot in the spaces between them

As always, allow the paint to dry fully and completely.

Entire illustration with the flowering heads plotted in

Step 8: Add colour to the flowers

Each of these florets is tiny, so the challenge is to get some colour onto the flowers without losing detail and definition.  I admit I didn’t entirely succeed in this, I got tied up ith leaving white paper for the bright yellow anthers, and this compromised the colour of each flower.

The mix for the body of each petal is as before; purples, oranges, pinky-reds.  But with an added dash of red, and a touch of a bright pink like Opera rose.

Colour mix for the flower body: As for the outlines of the flowers, but with more red and some bright pink like Opera rose

I focus this colour towards the centre of each floret, and where one overlaps another.  Keep the colour fairly light.  The whites of the page here help the eye distinguish between the different florets, so we need to be sure it doesn’t all get swallowed up in reds.

Working into the petal colour

Let the paint dry fully.

Step 9: Add a Pink top wash to the flowers

Dilute your reddish colour with water and add a dash of a bright pink.  Keeping the paint very dilute and watery, lay it over the best part of the flowers youve painted, leaving the occassional bit of white, and the spaces where the golden anthers are going to sit white.

Great burnet flowering head with top wash of pink applied

Let this pale wash dry before the next step, adding the golden anthers.

Top colour for the flowers: That same pink body colour, but diluted with lots of water and with a bit of pink added

Step 10: Finish the flowers, then finish the painting

Using a golden colour from your paint-box, unmixed, like a Cadmium yellow dark, just paint a little circle where each anther should be.  Once dry, use a slightly dilute brighter and paler yellow, and pop a dot on top.  Allow to dry.

I left the pencil lines to suggest the stamen filaments; you could go over these with a pale grey or a pale blue if you prefer.

Adding the anthers

The next step is to plot in the woody stem and roots with a reddish brown mixed from Burnt Sienna, reds, and Burnt umber.

Final touches are knocking back those leaf midribs with a watery yellow green, and looking for more darks.  Anywhere that needs crisping up, giving dark edges, adding depth of shadow…pop some of that blue and purple mix on.

Completed illustration with paints and references

I colour up the individual flower details, using the same mixes as were used for the main illustration.

And there you have it…finished!

This approach can be used for illustrating most wild flowers, so long as you have decent reference materials.  The outline, adding darks, adding layers of top wash, then picking out the deepest darks.  But, like I always say, if you can get your hands on living specimens, you’ll be making life a whole lot easier for yourself!

Completed Great Burnet illustration

The post Great Burnet Step by Step appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

And, of course, I do botanical illustrations of them rather frequently.

Selection of grasses

I went on an FSC course recently, this time on identifying grasses (other grass courses by FSC are available here).  And one of the things I learned was some really quick tips to help identify some fairly common grasses.  So I’m going to share them.

Common grasses: Cocksfoot

I think Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata is one of the easiest grasses to learn.  It forms thick clumps, and is rather blueish.  Leaves are folded as they grow.  They’re sometimes crinkled, as if the grass is being pushed up.  But the give away is the way the flowering heads branch.  They almost always have two lower branches which come out at wide angles from the stem.  this explains the name as people reckon the branches look like the divergent toes of a cockerel.  It grows from 15 – 140cm.  The ligule is quite long, white, and looks “torn” or ripped.

Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata

The lower stem is often pale or even white.

Detail of Cocksfoot ligule

My two illustrations of separate plants show this diagnostic lower branch pattern pretty clearly.  The flowering spikelets are often tinged pink or purple, but be aware that this is true for quite a few grass species.

Common grasses: Rye grass

Rye grass Lolium perenne is ubiquitous.  It’s planted for grazing and also makes up the bulk of grass seed for lawns.  It’s incredibly tough, and will often be the grass still standing after being mown.  You often see residual flowering spikes all through the winter.  If unmown, it will grow to 10 – 90cm.

Rye grass Lolium perenne

Rye grass is really shiny green, especially when young.  Unlike most grasses, its flowers cling very closely to the stem.  They don’t branch out or droop.  The only other species that bears its flowers in a similar pattern is the Italian Rye grass.

Italian Rye grass Lolium multiflorum

The main difference between these two is that the Italian rye has spines or “awns” on its spikelets.  But you can see how similar the form of the flowering spike is.

Common grasses: Sweet Vernal Grass

Sweet vernal grass Anthoxum odoratum is another common grass.   It’s one of the first grasses to flower.  This species can grow up to 80cm high.  As the name suggests, it smells rather strongly of hay.  This comes from high levels of cumarin which is what gives hay its distinctive sweet smell.  Crush a blade of Sweet vernal grass and, in theory at least, you should be able to smell it.

Sweet Vernal grass Anthoxanum odoratum

It also has a “beard” of hairs around it’s ligule.  The only other UK grass to have a similar beard is the Heath grass Danthonia decumbens which only grows in arid places.

Detail of ligule of the Sweet vernal grass

Common grasses: Common Reed

Common reed Phragmites australis grows in rivers, canals, and ponds, and damp places.  It has broad blue-ish leaves.  It is a really big plant, growing to 2 – 3 m tall.

Common reed Phragmites australis

Reed flowers are quite easy to see too.  The outer layers are often flushed maroon which gives the flowering head a purplish look, and the spikelets have long spines or awns.

The big give-away with the reed is its ligule.  Unlike most grasses, it doesn’t have a membraneous one.  Its ligule is a simple circle of long hairs.  It’s the only UK grass that has this feature.  Coupled with it’s love for moist habitats, you can recognize the Common reed with no trouble.

Detail of an individual spikelet and the ligule of hairs of the Common Reed

Common grasses: Yorkshire fog

Yorkshire fog Holcus lannatus is one of my favourite grasses.  It feels different to almost all the other grasses (except the closely related Creeping soft grass Holcus mollis which tends to grow in woodlands not meadows), as if it’s made of incredibly fine velvet.  It grows from 20 – 100cm tall.

Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus

The spikelets are often flushed a beautiful pink.  It’s worth noting that the flowering spike hides inside the sheath of a leaf blade before flowering, so you often see if very compressed.  Once in full flower, it has a wide spreading flowering head.

Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus

But if this velvety texture doesn’t convince you, there’s another way to check you are looking at Yorkshire fog.  Have a rummage right down at the base of the plant, and look closely at the stems. If you see pink stripes, like old fashioned pyjamas, then you’ve got Yorkshire fog.  In fact, the whole plant is flushed pink, but again, that alone isn’t a species diagnostic.  The pyjama stripes are.

Pink “pyjama stripes” at base of Yorkshire fog

Common grasses: False Oat grass

False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius is everywhere.  You’re very likely to find it on road verges and in recently disturbed places, or unmanaged land.  It’s known as a ruderal species.  Although the flowering head is branched, the branches come close together once fertilized.  This makes the flowering heads look like graceful silvery arches. The leaves are flat and a dull green.

False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius

 The spikelets have really long awns, as long as the entire spikelet.  The long awns give the grass the effect of being very silvery as it catches the light. Each spikelet only holds two florets, one of which has the reproductive flowering parts.  Here’s a close up of the flower, showing the distinctive long awn:

Flower and lemma of the False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius

But there’s one more trick to identifying False oat grass.  Look at the roots.  The base of this grass has yellow-orange roots.  these are really distinctive, and may also be swollen into round bulb-like structures. For me, the yellow roots are the final piece of jigsaw that helps me i.d. this one right every time.

Yellow roots of the False Oat grass

Common grasses: Spotting your Meadow grasses

This is a bit of a cheat as it won’t take you to an actual specific species.  But many of our UK species are Poa, or members of the Meadow grass family.  So how can you tell if a grass is a Poa?  It’s mostly down to the distribution of the branches on the flowering spike.  If they grow in whorls, and the inflorescence is like a christmas tree in shape, then you’re likely to have a Meadow grass.

Rough meadow grass Poa trivialis

One other group of UK grasses are also whorled in growth, the Bents.  However, Bent grasses (like Common or Creeping bent Agrostis capillaris) flower later in the year.  They also have tiny flowers, much smaller than the Meadow grasses.  Also, Bent grasses only have one floret per spikelet.  Poa have many more.  The meadow grass above, Rough meadow grass Poa trivialis, can be identified by rubbing the stem on your upper lip.  if it’s rough, then it’s likely to be P. trivialis rather than any other meadow grass.

Meadow grasses are another of the species who have really obvious flattened and keeled leaves (like the Cocksfoot).  These blades are said to be “boat shaped”, with a distinct prow.  They look as if they’ve been folded in half.

Conclusion

So there you are.  A whistle stop tour of some of our commonest grasses, and how to identify them.  There are others that are crazily easy – the Bearded couch Elytrigia repens has extremely purple nodes (at least in woodland habitats).  It has distinct claws where the leaf blade meets the stem, and very little in the way of ligules.  These claws (“auricles”) are also flushed a vibrant purple. Look out for it in woodlands.

The Quaking grasses are easy too, mainly because they look so dissimilar to everything else.  They tremble in the breeze, grow in dry heathland, and are one of our prettiest grasses.

Quaking grass Briza media

And the Crested Dog’s hair Cynosurus cristatus is another one to keep an eye out for.  At a push it might be confused with Rye grass, but it’s distinctive zig-zag inflorescence feels very different.

Crested Dog’s hair grass Cynosurus cristatus

I hope I’ve managed to share some of my love of these diverse and glorious plants.  Not only are they fabulous and frequently overlooked, but they’re also wonderful to illustrate!  Now you;re able to identify a few species, give it a go.  You may well find yourself entirely bewitched by grasses, like I am.

The post Common Grass species identification: Some easy shortcuts appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

If you’ve come from the youtube film and just want a printable PDF to work with, please scroll to the bottom of the page)

Learning about Orchids

I decided this was the perfect time to try and learn a bit about orchid flowers, so I could stop being scared of them.  Consulting Common Families of Flowering Plants by Hickey & King, Understanding the Flowering Plants by Bebbington, and The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms by Hickey & King I pieced together a diagram.  I drew it up and labelled it, and will use it anytime I’m asked to illustrate and orchid.

The take home message is that the whole orchid flower is twisted upside down.  Yes, I know.  But if you look at its’ pedicel (where the inferior ovary is) you can even see the twisted striations.  Why?  So that the large, flat Labellum petal can act as a broad landing mat for pollinators.  Different types twist in different ways.   Our Marsh orchid has managed a Resupinate twist, basically a 180 degree flip.

The Labellum, or base petal, often has a spur growing back from it.  There are two wing petals, in the case of my Early Marsh orchid these are help up above the flower, like hands flung up in an act of surrender.  Then there’s the Outer perianth and inner perianth(also referred to as the Median and lateral sepal).  Inside these are the paired Polliniums.

Diagram of a Pollinia and within an orchid flower

Orchid Reproduction

Orchids don’t always need insect pollinators and some can self-fertilize, but when they do want pollinating they are incredibly clever.  Some mimic female insects to lure lust-filled males to them, then glue the pollinium to them.  Others, like the Fragrant orchid, will glue the pollinium to the tongue of a feeding butterfly, perfectly positioning it to fertilize the sticky stigmatic area on the next orchid it visits. Pollinium get attached to legs, eyes, backs…and carried onto the next orchid where fertilization occurs.

Orchid bee Euglossa cybelia with Cycnoches guttulatum orchid

Pencil roughs and alterations

The first pencil rough needed tweaking as the plant was too tall.  This involved ditching a pair of leaves and re-drawing the bottom of the stem and the orchid bulb (pseudo bulb).  Getting feedback from botanists is very welcome, it means I feel confident in the accuracy of my illustrations.

Pencil rough with feedback

Materials

I’m using Stonehenge Aqua hotpress watercolour paper, Winsor & Newton pans (topped up from tubes), and (incredibly for me) use the synthetic Princeton Neptune Round brush throughout.  (For more on this, please check out my blogs on Synthetic alternatives to the Winsor & Newton series 7 sable brushes)

Leaves

The leaves of this plant are described as a light, spring green, although they seem to vary a lot in the photos.  However, unlike the Spotted orchids (close relatives), they are entirely green.

Common spotted orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Mixing Sap green, Cobalt blue, and Cadmium lemon, I start by outlining wach leaf then plotting in the longditudinal parallel veins. Once dry, I make a lighter tint of this green by adding lots of water, and a touch of Cerulean blue.  I paint this over all the leaves, then leave it to dry.

Another paler wash goes on top of this, and the difference between the underside and top of the leaf blade is suggested with a slight difference in colour (a little milkier and bluer below)

Once dry, I pick out the darks by mixing Sepia with Cobalt blue and a touch of Winsor Green (yellow hue).  Go easy, you really just want these dark areas to show definition, not to darken the leaves.

Roots

Each root is outlined in a brown made from Sepia, the green mixed for the leaf, and Yellow ochre.  The pseudobulbs and plotted in with a pale brown made from Yellow ochre and Naples yellow.

Whilst wet, I use tiny blobs of the darker root brown to add texture.  When the paint is dry, I suggest shadows with a mix of Sepia and Cobalt blue.

Stem

Using a dilute and yellowish tint of the greens, I paint in the stem, being sure to suggest the parallel veins and a slight shadow on the right hand side.  traditionally, the light source in botanical illustration comes from the top left, so shadows behave accordingly.

Flowers

There are between 10 and 70 flowers per inflorescence on this species of Orchid, so it’s worth pulling out one flower and paitning it in more detail.  I do this, and emphasize the twist in the column,  The colour is vital in this sub-species, being described as “bright red”, “brick red”, “scarlet”, “orange-infused red”, and “markedly redder than other orchids”.  Close and repeated consultation of all my reference gives it as something of a reddish maroon.  I make this hue from Alizarin crimson, Cadmium red, and Opera rose.

The other vital diagnostic in the Early Marsh Orchid is that the sides of the Labellum are inflexed, curled back on themselves.  This means the flower looks narrower than many similar orchids, and that the central keel of the labellum is raised, almost like the keel of a boat.  This proved excrutiatingly tricky to illustrate, although I tried my best.

Flowers vs Bracts

I feel a bit weak looking at that big inflorescence, it’s s hard to figure out what’s orchid and what’s bract, or flower column. First thing to do is separate them out.  So I paint in the bracts, thinking carefully all the time about what is and isn’t the flowering part.  I use the same yellowish green as on the stem – sap green, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow and a whole lot of water.  I add a touch of Daniel Smith Spring green watercolour.  Once outlined, I paint over the tips of the top bracts in Alizarin crimson, aware that the flowering heads look red all over and no areas of clear green are visible.

Then I in fill with a dilute version of the initial green hue.

Once dry, I add more red to the bracts.

Flowers: The Labellum

The literature suggests that the labellum is a deeper red than the upper petals and sepals. This means I add a tiny bit more Cadmium red and a touch of Permanent carmine to the red mix.  Although it doesn’t really succeed, I try to suggest the reflexing of the labellum edges as I paint.  I’m worried that the flowers all look too orchid-typical, and not oblong enough.

Flowers in their entirety

The other sepals and petals are outlined with a pinker colour.  This means adding more Opera pink, and water to the mix.

As always, colours are allowed to completely dry.

Now use tints of the red and of the pink to fill in the orchid flowers, leaving a white area at the centre of each flower.  A dab of yellow green at the top of these central areas is enough to suggest the complexities of the pollinium, and a pale area is left below this.

Next come the distinctive markings on the labellum, easily added sing Permanent magenta straight form the pan.

Now I need to knock the whole thing back, and make the inflorescence red and purple instead of green.  Everything gets covered with a tint of Alizarin crimson and Opera rose.  Once dry, there follows a very long period of adding darker shades of Alizarin crimson.   Then I pick out shadows with a mix of Cobalt blue and the magenta.  I also added a touch of the reds to the sheath area down by the pseudo-bulb.  This helps unite the image.

A few drop shadows made from Cobalt blue and Permanent magenta, and we’re done.

Conclusion

Knowing a little about the structure of orchids proved really helpful in this job.  Right after finishing, I spilled most of a jar of water on the illustration. I was amazed and delighted to find that, after very loud swearing and judicious application of clean loo roll, no damage had been done.

Early Marsh Orchid Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea

I’m glad to have completed this illustration.  I don’t think it’s my best orchid to date, but it passes muster.  Fingers crossed that the client thinks so too!

To see a film of me illustrating this orchid in real time, please see below.

Below is a pdf of the finished orchid illustration.  Feel free to print it off and trace (it’s for use as an art template only).

Early Marsh Orchid Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea

The post Orchid Botanical Illustration Step by step appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Cannock chase berry: Parent species

Hybrids are, according to Collins dictionary, “A hybrid is an animal or plant that has been bred from two different species of animal or plant.”  In this case the parents are the European blueberry, Vaccinium myrtillus; and the Cowberry or Lingonberry Vacciuium vitis-idaea.  Blueberry and Cowberry are found in profusion on Cannock chase, a wide area of heathland in the West Midlands, and occassionaly, this very rare hybrid, only found on this one heathland site, will appear too.  Hybrids commonly share characteristics from both parents, and this is true in the case of the Cannock chase berry.  The situation is complicated by the fact that different individual plants will show more or less characteristics of the parent species.

European Blueberry

The Blueberry is easy to recognise when it’s in fruit.  It has black berries which look purple or blue, thanks to a waxy bloom.  These ripen from a reddish hue.  Fruit are produced every year (and are delicious).

European blueberry, Vaccinium myrtillus sketch of berries

Flowers are round and pink, and grow from the leaf axils, either individually or in pairs. They have 2 Bracts, and no Bracteoles.  Inside the flower, the stamens have hairless filaments.  For more on the anatomy of flowers, check out my diagram.

Blueberry leaves are deciduous, shedding every autumn.  The leaf is thin, bright green and thin, oval, with a sharp tip.  The base of the leaf is slightly indented, or heart shaped.  Leaf margins lie flat, with small teeth.

European blueberry, Vaccinium myrtillus

The stem is green, with clear ridges, and is hairless.

Cowberry

Cowberry has bright scarlet fruit, free of bloom. They don’t necessarily appear every year, and are round like the blueberries.

Cowberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea fruit

Flowers are a very pale pink, and are in clusters at the end of stems.  There will be between 5 and 10 flowers per stem.  They’re bell-shaped, and less rounded than the Blueberry.  If you get a hand lens out, you’ll see that the filaments of the stamens are slightly hairy.  There’s one Bract and two Bracteoles.

Leaves are evergreen, so they don’t shed in autumn.  Once ever few years, the plant will shed its’ foliage.  This means in the winter it’s really easy to spot Cowberry, little green shrubby bushes at foot height in the heath.  The leaves differ from Blueberry by being tougher and thicker,  they’re a darker shade of green, and feel more leathery.  The margins have far less obvious teeth, and leaf edges are curled back on themselves.  At the leaf tip, the margins sometimes appear concave, emarginate.  The base of the leaf is rounded to flattened.

Cowberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea

Stems are brown below, green higher up and less strongly ridged that the Blueberry.  They also tend to grow less crooked than Blueberry branches.

Bracts vs Bracteoles

The niceties of botany mean in this case it’s important to know the difference between Bracts and Bracteoles.  This is because the comparative numbers of these structures in comparing our Vaccinium species can help tell the species apart.

According to the online Dictionary of botany, a Bract is, “A leaflike organ subtending an inflorescence. Bracts are sometimes brightly coloured and petal-like, as in poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima.” So bracts appear below the flower clusters.  Meanwhile a Bracteole is, “A leaflike organ subtending a flower in an inflorescence that is itself subtended by a bract .”  In effect, the difference is where the leaf-lie structure appears.  If you’ve got a cluster of flowers, it’ll be a bract at the base of the cluster, and a bracteole at the base of each individual flower.

Lesser Water Parsnip Berula erecta bract vs bracteole

Cannock chase Berry

So now we’ve met the parents, let’s meet the star of the show, the Cannock chase berry.

Cannock chase berry Vaccinium x intermedium

We begin with the fruit.  This isn’t produced often, and is a mix of the parents; reddish purple.  Looking at all the photos, I’d suggest it looks a little more like a Blueberry than a Cowberry, but the colour is certainly a lot redder.  The photo by “Bits on Twigs” on Flickr was the most helpful reference I found.  I chose only to provide the berry as a side vignette since they appear so sporadically.

Berry of Cannock chase berry Vaccinium x intermedium

Flowers are in the leaf axils, not in terminal clusters.  They’re a sort of rounded bell shape (see?  perfect mix of rounded Blueberry flowers and bell-shaped Cowberry flowers), and pale pink.  The stamen filaments aren’t hairless (Blueberry) nor are they hairy (Cowberry).  Nope.  They’re bang in the middle, being gently downy.

There’s one Bract, and a pair of Bracteoles on each flower.

Leaves are semi-deciduous, not evergreen.  Yes they shed, but not every year.  They’re somewhere between Blueberry and Cowberry leaves.  A mid glossy green, neither thin nor thick and leathery.  The thickness and glossy surface may make it hard to see the individual leaf veins  Margins are slightly curved back on themselves.  There are some margin teeth, but they’re small and not ubiquitous.  The leaf bases vary.  Some are heart shaped (like blueberry leaves), some are flatter or wedged (like Cowberry leaves).  Some of the leaves are rather elongate, and their tips are rather blunter than those of the Blueberry.

Leaves of Cannock chase berry Vaccinium x intermedium

Stems are a mix of the parent species, too.  They tend to be green like the Blueberry rather than brown like the Cowberry.  Stems are a bit hairy (Blueberry stems are hairless, Cowberry stems are hairy).  And there’s some angling and ridging going on, like the Blueberry, but it’s not as pronounced.

Stem of Cannock chase berry Vaccinium x intermedium

Conclusion

As you can imagine, getting these three species confused is really vey easy, not least because the Cannock chase berry produces fruit so infrequently.  The main source for my research on these three species is the BSBI Plant crib, an extraordinary erudite, accessible and free online resource.  The pdf for Vaccimium species is here.

Amazingly, late on in the process, I was sent some dried and fresh specimens of the plant to waork with which made life a whole lot easier.  the berry was dried out, but the leaves were, fresh, glossy, and beautifully easy to work with,

Other useful resources are iSpot (good for all wildflower identification), and some amazing botanists on Twitter.  In particular, the photos so generously shared by Alex Prendergast and JoParmenter made my life a lot easier.  Thankyou.

For more on other botanical delights of Cannock chase, please check out my blog.

Cannock chase berry with actual sprig of leaves, and my trusty paintbrush

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