This week in Ireland we celebrate Heritage Week. A week of celebration of all our Irish heritage, nature, history, people and more.
A big thank you to all those who attended the wildflowers walks I was involved in over the weekend at the Foxford Riverfest and Glore Mill near KIltimagh. It was wonderful to see so many interested people, both young and old.
A couple of people mention was how lovely it is to learn the names of plants but then how easy it is to forget, days later. So I thought I’d put together a post of some of what we saw to help.
Purple Loosestrife
One of the favourites. A great plant for bees and butterflies. Purple Loosestrife likes damp ground, and can be often seen in large clumps. Meadowsweet (see below), likes similar conditions and they are often found together. Loosestrife has a high tannin content and was used for tanning leather. The flowers were used for making a dye.
Meadow Sweet
It’s well worth stopping to smell this flower, it has a heavy almost intoxicating scent! It gets it name from “mead sweet” – because it was used to flavour and sweeten mead. It was also added to wines and ales. In folk medicine it was used as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory. It contains salicylic acid, which was synthesized into aspirin.
Tufted Vetch
Another great bee plant. We have many different vetches in Ireland and Tufted vetch is one that flowers later in the season. All vetches are legumes and can fix their own nitrogen.
Willowherb
Willowherb
We have a number of willowherb species growing in Ireland. Willowherbs are also visited by bees. The leaves have been used to make tea. It is popular in Russia and know as Kaporie tea. Some species such as rosebay willowherb can be a bit invasive.
Ragworth
Ragworth can be toxic to livestock. They know not to eat it but if cut in hay or silage it can be accidentally eaten. However, quite large quantities need to be eaten for it to have it’s toxic effect. though horses seems particularly sensitive. Cinnabar moth caterpillar use this toxicity to protect themselves from being eaten. These brightly coloured caterpillar that only feed on ragworth. Ragworth has been used in folk medicine too. It’s visited by hoverflies and some some solitary bees.
Murtagh's Meadow 
Excellent post and fabulous pictures – liking the caterpiddler! xx
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Thank you kindly Miranda! He’s pretty groovy isn’t he!
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I remember my Mum telling me that in Liverpool after the war the first plant always to appear on bomb sites was rosebay willowherb.
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it’s a great coloniser. The seeds are spread by wind so the parent plant can be a long way from new plants:)
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It’s not Rosebay Willowherb but Great or Hairy Willowherb, which prefers damper places.
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Thank you for your comment Neil. I have had a look at http://www.wildflowersofireland.net and you are right Great willowherb does prefer damper places. We don’t have Hairy willowherb here in Ireland but we do have Hoary which also likes damp ground. Locally we do have rosebay willowherb growing on old bog which is pretty wet – so it doesn’t appear to be too fussy. I’ll need to have a better look at the river bank one to see if it was Great as opposed to rosebay (the photo shown isn’t from the walk but from another place).
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The only one we have here is the ragwort(h). Purple loosestrife is considered an invasive species in these parts but fortunately it hasn’t seemed to get a foothold on the island (yellow broom on the other hand…).
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Each purple loostrife plant produces millions of seeds so you can see how it would become invasive in other countries!
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I did not know any of this. What an interesting post!
We have purple loose strife in Ontario but it’s the kind that crowds out native plants and takes over. Pretty, though.
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Unfortunately it can be invasive when it gets out of it’s own country, like many plants!
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Brilliant post! I have been wondering what those pretty purple flowers are (now know they are Purple Loosestrife). They are all over West Cork this year and some on Sherkin Island too. Thank you!
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It seems to be a particularly good year for purple loosestrife – it’s probably been the wet summer that has suited it!
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So you’ve had two Canadians mention Purple Loosestrife as an invasive: one from Ontario, one from BC. Here, chiming in, is one from Prince Edward Island where it is also designated as invasive.
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Oh dear – definitely a bit of a bully boy then:(
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So, if I try to grow Loosestrife in my garden will I have to report it to the Monopolies Commission! Brilliant rundown of the flowers – we don’t have damp ground as the pond is ‘self-contained’ but will try what I can. Thank you indeed.
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Indeed loosestrife seems to be quite the bully when it gets out of its own environment!
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