Any idea what this is?

davidbr · #1 (**permalink**) 26-08-2009, 08:00 PM

They're not from the best of angles because I was pointing the camera through a railway station metal fence, it's another alien that's sprung up at the Abbey Wood Station, Bristol, and I'm totally stumped

Tiggrx · #2 (**permalink**) 26-08-2009, 08:33 PM

It is a species of Twinspur (Diascia)

davidbr · #3 (**permalink**) 26-08-2009, 09:08 PM

Thanks, Tiggrx; it seems to match Diascia barberae

I'd never heard of it

nakedgardener · #4 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 05:25 AM

It's normal habitat is window boxes and hanging baskets.................. or South Africa.

It'll be a self seeded one from someone's garden, and almost certainly a hybrid.

davidbr · #5 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 07:51 AM

Abbey Wood Station, where this one's sprung up, is quite a little haven for odd introductions. We've already got a couple of fine specimens of Hairy Canary-clover (Doryncium hirsutum) by the side of a path, established Argentinian Vervain (Verbena bonariensis) & Sulphur Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta), quite a few shrubs of Garden Tree-mallow (Lavatera x clementii) & Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), a large "hedge" of Sorbaria (Sorbaria sorbiifolia), Lewis's Hebe (Hebe x lewisii), Late Michaelmas-daisy (Aster x versicolor) and masses of Tall & Stinking Tutsan (Hypericum hirsutum & x inodorum) which makes a lovely show in July.

This will be a new one, though - it's competing well with long grass, although if it's not hardy it's unlikely it'll persist beyond this season. Good find, though

nakedgardener · #6 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 05:43 PM

In the olden days railway stations often had gardens, (It kept the porters busy when there wasn't any trains coming) I wonder if many of these unusual plants are remnants of this.

davidbr · #7 (**permalink**) 27-08-2009, 06:26 PM

No, it's a new station (relatively so, at least) - it was built about 15 years ago to serve the new Ministry of Defence HQ at Abbey Wood. Some of the plants are established elsewhere in the Filton area (Argentine Vervain & Balkan Spurge, Euphorbia oblongata, for instance) and others, the shrubs for instance, are probably bird-sown, but for many of them I've really got no idea where they come from

It's a real gold-mine for naturalised plants, anyway - I've added at least a dozen species to my list that I've never found elsewhere, the Hairy Canary-clover would be a first record for the county and quite possibly the only fully established site in the UK. We originally had just the one bush, but this year there are two so it's clearly taking hold.