Their moment in the light

Some of the most prolific weeds / wild flowers in my garden had their backlit moment towards the end of a beautifully clear and sunny bank holiday Saturday. The main photo is cleavers, Galium Aparine, also known as goose grass, sticky jack or sticky willie. There is an awful lot of it in the garden, and it spreads fast once established: according to the RHS, each plant produces 300-400 seeds which can remain viable in the soil for up to six years - so my weeding efforts will not bear fruit any time soon. However, it is a useful food plant for the caterpillars of many species of butterfly and moth, including hummingbird hawk moths. It is also (apparently) edible in soups and stews, has diuretic properties, and is part of the coffee family - ground seeds can be used to make cleavers coffee. 

The collage extra includes several plantain photos (I think it's ribwort plantain, Plantago Lanceolata), one with a bonus insect discovered after downloading, which I've not yet tried to identify; two very splendid, though unwelcome nettles; and in the centre, the fluffy remains of the pussy willow on our large (and probably self-sown) goat willow. I enjoyed putting the collage together; it was a more manageable challenge than deciding what to do with the 150 or so photos I seem to have inadvertently taken on Friday, a few of which will be blipped when I have time to sort them out.