- An occasional series of longer Reports and Studies -

EF5. “Lough Allen Spring Flowers: a sample Collection”

We decided this month to highlight a wide range of Plants and Flowers that appear around Lough Allen, North West Ireland, in the Springtime. These are both common and unusual, large and tiny, but all interesting and beautiful. This will be a big Feature so we have had to plan and organise our work (Yuck!). It follows a Botanical system. As you gradually get to know what plant belongs to what group (as we are doing), such a system does help one come to terms with an amazing diversity of plants. We use both Latin and common names for Families and we follow the order of Families used in ’Wildflowers of Britain and Ireland’ (Blamey, Fitter & Fitter) _ a thoroughly excellent book and one that is quite approachable.

In the following table Plants shown are laid out as Families. Each family shares something in common. Like Primrose and Cowslip are obviously related; look at their leaves! But also Wild Strawberry and Bramble are first cousins, even though the plants are greatly different in size! Our photos come from about 20 families and the order they are presented below follows botanical guidelines to Family order. (There are other groupings of plants but we will stick with families for this project.) Several of the specimens come from Families with only one representative, so we have grouped these into an Assorted Families group.

Acknowledgements: Many thanks to 3 of the Ladies of the Boyle Camera Club (Martina, Margaret and Susan) who joined us for a day with the flowers at the end of April and some of whose Photographs are reproduced below. Also, to Emma Dunne, Student of the Sligo Institue of Technology, starting with us this week on work experience, who landed into the major challenging job in her first few days of identifying some of these specimens and preparing some of the photographs. Nice one, EMMA!

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List of FAMILIES

Buttercups / Pinks / Violets / Cabbage family / Heathers / Primroses / Roses / Peas / Carrot family
Figworts / other Assorted Families / various Monocot Species (LILIES, ORCHIDS, Arums) / Curiosities

The small pictures below are being linked to full sized Images showing much more of the plants. These thumbnails are closely cropped to reveal details of the flower at the size necessary for this summary page. Look for the ‘Click2ENLARGE’ symbol on this Page and this Site. Where you see it, larger versions of the photographs are avalable. Click on the Thumbnails in the section below the symbol to go to a larger Image. Use your Browser BACK button to return here...

Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Wood Anemone	Marsh Marigold	Lesser Spearwort	Lesser Celandine
Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Ragged Robin	Greater Stitchwort	Common Mouse-ear (Chickweed)	Common Chickweed
Bog Stitchwort	Procumbent Pearlwort	Annual Pearlwort	Corn Spurry
Violets (Violaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Common Dog Violet	Wood Violet	Marsh Violet
Cabbage family (Brassicaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Lady’s Smock	Scurvy Grass	Hedge Mustard
Heath family (Ericaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Bog Rosemary	Bilberry (Fraochá¡n )	Cranberry	Cross-leaved Heath
Primrose family (Primulaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Primrose	Cowslip	Yellow Pimpernel	Bog Pimpernel
Rose family (Rosaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Dog Rose	Downy Rose	Tormentil	Silverweed
Wild Strawberry	Marsh Cinquefoil	Bramble	Barren Strawberry
Pea family (Fabaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Bush Vetch (white variant)	Bush Vetch	Birdsfoot Trefoil	White Clover
Red Clover	Kidney Vetch	Lesser Trefoil	Broom
Carrot family (Apiaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Cow parsley	Ground Elder	Pignut	Sanicle
Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae) - Click2ENLARGE -
Slender Speedwell	Thyme-leaved Speedwell	Germander Speedwell	Brooklime
Lousewort	Ivy-leaved Toadflax	Yellow Rattle	Eyebright
Assorted families (The species below belong to different Families.) - Click2ENLARGE -
Common Milkwort	Wood Sorrel	Herb Robert	Bogbean
Dog Daisy	Coltsfoot	Butterbur	Bugle
Tufted Forget-me-not	Changing Forget-me-not	Mint
Monocot. families (Varied) - Click2ENLARGE -
Bluebell	Ramsons	Twayblade	Early Purple Orchid
Lords and Ladies	Hare’s Tail Bog Cotton
Cyanophyceae family (Blue/Green algae)
Nostoc pruniforme... obviously not a flowering plant but we came across this interesting ‘colony’ in very clean water in a small lake off Lough Allen during our survey work. It is a colonial organism, photosynthesising, despite being a member of the Kingdom Bacteria. About golf ball size, these were numerous for a short while in this one location during the warm dry weather at the end of April. They are related to the ‘algae’ that can cause algal blooms in fresh water but these specimens are not dangerous or an indicator of pollution... very much the opposite! (More later.)