Summer is here! And with this British heatwave and plenty of sunshine, our flower meadows are thriving all over the four corners of Leeds. To find out exactly where our meadows are located, click here.
Perennial meadows
The five perennial meadows are looking great with a wide variety of sown species flowering. Most meadows are currently dominated by ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), wild carrot (Daucus carota), common knapweed (Centaurea nigra), yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare).
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| Viper's bugloss |
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| Lovely colours: ox-eye daisy, musk mallow and viper's bugloss at Burley Park meadow |
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| Yarrow |
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| Burley Park meadow |
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| Common knapweed & ox-eye daisies |
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| Stanhope Recreation Ground meadow (Horsforth) |
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| Action shot: sampling our Ebor Gardens meadow (Osmondthorpe) |
Other species flowering now include self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), musk mallow (Malva moschata) and tufted vetch (Vicia cracca). These provide a variety of flower shapes and sizes for different pollinators to visit, as well as looking brilliant to us humans!
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| Musk mallow |
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| Tufted vetch |
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| Bird's-foot trefoil |
Annual meadows
The ten annual meadows are at varying stages of development - some have quite a few flowers, whilst others are still looking quite bare. We hope that more sunshine (and a little bit of rain!) will encourage the annual meadows to grow.
The meadows which are further ahead are currently covered in lots of sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima), virginia stock (Malcomia maritima), white wall rocket (Diplotaxis erucoides), baby's breath (Gyposphila elegans) and a few Californian poppies (Eschscholzia californica).
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| Lush and green: Stanningley Park meadow |
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| Little dots of colour: Armley Park meadow |
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| White wall rocket |
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| Virginia stock |
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| So sunny: Californian poppies |
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| Nearly there! Californian poppy buds |
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| What a contrast with the mown grass (East End Park meadow) |
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| Sweet alyssum |
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| Counting flowers at our Seacroft Ring Road meadow |
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| View from our meadow at West Park Playing Fields (can you spot our information board?) |
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| Our information boards are up! Please look out for them next to our meadows |
Pollinators
We are already seeing a variety of insect pollinators on both our annual and perennial meadows - here are a few of our favourite snaps from the past week...
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| Honeybee (Apis mellifera) on white wall rocket |
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| Solitary bee (Colletes sp.) on ox-eye daisy |
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| Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) on wild carrot |
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| Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) on common knapweed |
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| Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) on bird's-foot trefoil |
We hope that the field poppies (Papaver rhoeas) and cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) will flower soon - the annual meadows will soon be a burst of beautiful colours in Leeds' parks and green spaces.
Great to see your meadows are doing well. Your information boards look good, hope they don`t get destroyed or stolen as most of ours have been.
ReplyDeleteI love this greenery...lovely flowers and bouquets !!
ReplyDeleteLotus flower has also a significant role in the production of the lotus robe. In the Inle Lake of Myanmar (Burma), townspeople utilize the fibers of lotus flower to make a special fabric to create kya thingahn or garment that clothes Buddha images. Lotus flower
ReplyDelete