Field Margin Flowers 2 – Common Field-Speedwell

Over the summer months I have been watching the way that an uncultivated strip of ploughed ground at the edge of a large maize field has been colonised by wild plants in my village of Charlton Down in Dorset. Bright red Common Poppies drew my attention to the area. Then I began to notice all the other arable weeds – like Common Field-Speedwell (Veronica persica) spreading over the rough stony surface of the field margin with its small blue flowers, underneath the taller plants.

If you look closely at some of these pictures, you can see not only the blue flowers of the Veronica persica but also the leaves of other plants such as Red Dead-Nettle, Field Madder, Sow Thistle, Common Poppy, Fumitory, Pineapple Mayweed, Knot Grass, and Scarlet Pimpernel.

This series presents some of the pictures I have taken, not only of individual plant types, but also the whole assemblage of plants. You have to look very carefully to discover what is hiding in plain sight.