Id - Small blue flower at Aston Rowant

[reefbirder]

Hi All,

I had a great walk up on Aston Rowant yesterday afternoon. I was overwhelmed with the amount and variety of the flowers and plants there. I have managed to identify most of them, but was wondering if anybody could help with this one? I think it is Chalky Milkwort, it was on a sunny close cropped chalky slope.

Cheers
Rob

[Hedera]

The flowers are close together at the top of the stem so I would say Chalky milkwort.

[clb100]

I'm not you can tell which milkwort (polygala) from the photograph.

The fact that the plant is on chalk doesn't mean it is chalk milkwort. I live on the South Downs where common milkwort (polygala vulgaris) appears at least as common.

AIUI two distinguishing features are (a) the basal leaves - larger than the stem leaves and more rosette like in P calcarea and (b) anastomising veining on the inner sepals of P vulgaris.

As far as I can see the photo doesn't show either the basal leaves or detail of the sepals.

[The Woodman]

What does AIUI mean, clb100?

[clb100]

AIUI - as I understand it

[Dorts]

clb100 is correct here. It is not possible to determine the ID of this plant from the photo.
The most obvious difference is that Chalk Milkwort has the most distinct bright gentian-blue flowers, compared to Common Milkwort, though either species may be found with red, pink or white flowers.
An equally good distinction from Common Milkwort, (as clb100 has said), is the irregular false rosette of blunter leaves at the base of the stem.
Chalk Milkwort by is far the less common of the two, even though a particular habitat may appear perfect for it.
Dorts.

[The Woodman]

Thanks clb100 - should have realised that - there was I thinking it might have a botanical term!

[reefbirder]

Thanks everybody for the very informative comments. This is the information that I want. I guess I have to remember that I have been a bird watcher for 25 years and it took me a long time to know what I now know about them. I picked up a copy of the Collins flower guide and a new camera a few weeks ago, and of course I expect to know it all instantly - lol. I think I need to get on a few walks with some experienced people and get shown the ropes.

Rob

[clb100]

Hi Rob,

If you do go out with any experienced botanists I suggest you ask them to explain how they determined what the plant is. Many will identify it often just by its jizz but that may not be too much help to you.

I also suggest that you learn to use keys. I find those in Collins very good. The polygala key is only one page before the plant descriptions and had you looked it may well have enabled you to tell whether it was common or chalk straight away - it certainly would have told you about the importance of the basal leaves.

The other suggestion I have is that you don't always attempt to identify every single species straight away. First try to identify which family. If you look at page 49 of Collins it lists the top 20 families (and provides a key for them) together with what Streeter calls 5 typical families. Most of the plants you are find are very likely in one of of these 25 families. Once you are comfortable with this try to work out which genus - Collins has a key that is focused on these 25 families first and is only about 3 pages long - so saves you wading through whole bits of comprehensive keys in other books which are probably not relevant. Once you are comfortable with this you should then find it easier with a new plant to get to a species (or realise that you can't because some critical feature for example fruit isn't present).

Hope this is useful.

[alindsay]

Could you enlighten me as to which Collins book are you referring to? Sounds like a must for identifying.

Meanwhile, what are keys?