Guelder Rose

It was a morning of showers and I went out with the intention of photographing Herb Paris. There is a small stand of the plant by the roadside next to the Coldwell Parrock Nature Reserve, 2 miles from home. I was hoping to see the plants in fruit with their single round berry above the stalked rosette of 4 leaves. In the event, I had left it too late, almost all the plants have dropped their leaves, and there was only one left worthy of a photograph. The plant at this back end of the year was a little moth-eaten, so I have not blipped it, though you can see it here.


Herb Paris is such an interesting plant, so unusual in having its leaves in fours, and the parts of its flowers in fours and eights. It's an indicator of ancient woodlands, and although it is well distributed, it is never common and always a delight to find. Anyway, we shall have to wait till next Spring now for a respectable photograph.

The alternative today is something altogether more common, the guelder rose, a small shrub found in woodlands and hedgerows. At this time of the year, its umbels of fruits are the most conspicuously colourful fruits in our hedgerows.

ps We are heading south on Sunday to see my father, I may not be able to blip over the next week, but will try and keep tabs on other peope's journals.