Grasmere specimens

[Dorts]

Ian. Just to re-cap.
1. Yellow Loosestrife - Lysmachia vulgaris.
(also pictured is Angelica - Angelica sylvestris.)
2. Salad Burnet - Poterium sanguisorba, a dark-flowered form. Most unusual!
3. Perforate St John'swort - Hypericum perforatum. (always difficult to be sure from a photo).
4. Corn Mint - Mentha arvensis.
5. Marsh Woundwort - Stachys palustris. Can't be 100% sure, but can't think what else it could be. A close-up would have helped.)
6. Michaelmas Daisy - Aster agg.
7. Welsh Poppy - Mecanopsis cambrica.
Dorts.

[IanP]

Thanks, Dort. Just one more before I start to catlogue my photos. This one was taken on my phone, so even less clear than the others, by a reservoir close to Sheffield. I'm fairly comfortable with Mint, but which one?






Finally, also by the local reservoir, a large drift of Yellow Loosestrife, located below the high water mark of the reservoir (phone photo again, sorry about the quality).

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by IanP

Thanks, Dort. Just one more before I start to catlogue my photos. This one was taken on my phone, so even less clear than the others, by a reservoir close to Sheffield. I'm fairly comfortable with Mint, but which one?

The Mint is a hybrid. Flower arrangement is like the hybrid Whorled Mint but the leaves are wrong for that. There are many hybrid Mints in the wild that are impossible to name. This could be one of them.

Wonderful patch of Yellow Loosestrife.
Dorts.

[Mele]

The burnet still looks like great burnet to me. The leaflets look oval, whereas salad burnet's are round???
Mel

....admittedly arriving rather late in discussion.......

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Mele

The burnet still looks like great burnet to me. The leaflets look oval, whereas salad burnet's are round???Mel
....admittedly arriving rather late in discussion.......

I agree Mel that it certainly is a strange looking plant. Leaves to me are neither one nor the other though colour leans a bit towards Greater , leaflet numbers in either species can be from 3-7 in Greater B, or 3-12 in Salad B.

The flowers of Greater Burnet are normally more than twice as long as wide, whereas this flower is the size of a normal Salad B.
Could it be a very smalled-flowered var. of Greater Burnet? That is certainly a possibility.

The certain way to tell them apart is that in Salad B flowers, the styles are in the upper part, and the stamens in the lower. In Greater B. the styles and stamens are together over the whole flower. In the photo I can only see stamens on the lower part.
It is worth mentioning that hybrids between the two are not known.

So maybe the best we can say with this plant is 'Sanguisorb species'.
Dorts.

[IanP]

Thanks again, Dort. I checked out the web examples of Whorl Mint and, from the Irish Wildflowers site got:

Natural hybrid between Corn Mint (M. arvensis) and Water Mint (M. aquatica)
Flowering time: July-October. Perennial. Native.

Whorls of mauve flowers, stamens NOT projecting. Either leaves or flowers at apex.
Calyx hairy, narrow-triangular teeth. (photo below right)
Stalked, toothed, hairy leaves. Stronger, taller plant than Corn Mint. Sterile hybrid, spreads vegetatively by underground rhizomes. Height: To 90cm.

Grows on slightly dryer ground than Water Mint. Damp grassland, river banks.
Most frequent hybrid Mint.


Website: Irish Wildflowers - Whorled Mint

Hairy-toothed leaves I can see, but I also checked out Corn Mint and Water Mint. None of the three appears to have the same deep flower colour as the one I photographed; the flowers in the website photos are quite different to those in the one I took.

[Dorts]

Yes, Whorled Mint is by far our commonest hybrid, as are it's parents Water and Corn Mint our commonest species.
The leaves of both are similar, as are those of the hybrid, (Whorled Mint).
But in your plant the leaves are like neither, so I suspect there is an influence from another Mint. Problem is that many of the hybrids can be fertile which creates a minefield when it comes to trying to ID them.
Dorts.

[IanP]

hi Dorts,

Thanks for that. You didn't mention the colour, though. Is it as variable as the illustrations I've seen suggest?

Ian