Beautiful Bugle

The weather was just atrocious today, so naturally I was out in the woods surveying plants...and getting very wet! In conditions like that it is difficult to focus on getting good photographs. Many plants were not looking at their best and it was uncomfortable getting down into their world to fully experience them. The exception was Bugle, Ajuga reptans. For some reason the drifts of blue spikes seemed to be even more vivid in the rain and the solid little plants seemed to defy the downpour. I knew that as soon as the rain eased they would provide the perfect fast food outlet for many insects, with their closely stacked nectar-filled flowers. This is a terribly common woodland plant, but close up it is as glorious as any of the more showy members of the Dead-nettle family.