Dear Readers, on New Year’s Day we decided to enjoy some brief sunshine amidst the downpours and howling gales that had comprised most of the festive season, and to go and look for plants in flower. We went to Cherry Tree Wood, and to some of the surrounding streets in East Finchley, including my beloved unadopted road (always a fine location for ‘weeds’ of all varieties. In all, we found 9 plants in flower.First up, some daisies in the grassy verge around the Monkey Puzzle Nursery. Some of this area has been managed as a tiny wildflower meadow in the past few years, but if you don’t see anything else, you can bet your life that you’ll see a daisy, bless ’em. So far in the Plant Hunt, it’s the plant most often seen (on 1236 different hunts when I last looked)

Daisy (Bellis perennis)

Strangely enough there was nothing obvious in flower in Cherry Tree Wood as we strolled through, but on the unadopted road there were several fine patches of white dead-nettle (Lamium album). I do love a Lamium – there are so many wonderful plants in this genus and they are great for pollinators. Between the woundworts and the dead-nettles and the horehounds there are some great medieval names too. Currently on the BSBI list at number 5.

White Dead-Nettle (Lamium album)

Coming out of the unadopted road and heading along Baronsmere there were a variety of plants in flower growing out of the old walls. This area has always been a great place for weed-hunting, with some of the plants being obviously self-sown from garden plants, and others just liking the habitat. So, in quick succession we had two kinds of bellflower, Trailing (Campanula poscharskyana) and Adria or Dalmatian (Campanula portenschlagiana). Trailing bellflower comes in at number 38, but I can’t see Adria bellflower at the moment. These plants seem pretty local to North London to me, and particularly round where I live – it’s always interesting to see how plants take to some areas more than others.

Dalmatian bellflower

Trailing Bellflower

Someone had a very fine smooth sow-thistle growing in their front garden – the one in the photo is another plant, but you get the general idea. In at number thirteen!

Smooth sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)

There is almost always some yellow corydalis in flower too, and here it was again, just about to put out some flowers. Such a delicate-looking plant, and if it wasn’t already growing up everywhere no doubt we’d pay for it in the garden centre.

Yellow corydalis (Pseudofumaria lutea)

And there was some ivy-leaved toadflax, one of my favourite urban flowers. You can spot it growing out of almost any wall that isn’t completely marble-smooth, and if you look very closely you’ll see that its flowers are like tiny miniature orchids.

Ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis)

On the corner of Park Hall Road there’s a raised bed by the side of one of the houses that always has some interesting and unexpected plants. On one occasion I found some lucerne, which was rather puzzling, but this time there was some lady’s bedstraw in flower. Did someone chuck a handful of wildflower seeds here once years ago, and they’ve been sorting themselves out ever since? Very puzzling. The photo below is from Muswell Hill Playing Fields, where there is a similar wild patch, but you get the general idea.

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)

And finally there was some shepherd’s purse at the bottom of a wall on Durham Avenue. I’ve grown very fond of this little plant, which seems to be able to put up with the toughest of conditions (this is currently the tenth most-often reported plant)

Shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

So we found nine plants in flower in less than 45 minutes during our walk in what is mainly a pretty urban area. Some dedicated souls have managed to find over 100 species, and you can read all about what’s been found so far here. I will report back when the results have been analysed, but in the meantime do let me know if you did the plant hunt here in the UK or Ireland, or if you do something similar where you live.

And now, on to the Great British Birdwatch at the end of the month. How I ever found time to work I have no idea.