This red/purple cotinus on our deck (variant rhus cotinus) and its largely spent flowers become particularly attractive just after rain, and we’ve had a lot of rain lately. Not good for most photography, but great for raindrops!
Rhus Cotinus is also called ‘European smoke bush’, presumably because the large groups of flowers on stems can look a bit like a smoky edging to the plant (see above Wikipedia link).
Note to pedants. No they’re not the actual rain drops, but the varied effect of splashes, joining together, streaming, viscosity, surface tension, etc! That’s why some of the drops are rather large and some are very small.
Originally posted on Eyes in the back of my Head: Orchid no. 2 (2019) and orchid no. 1 (2018) I noticed yesterday that an Early Purple Orchid had appeared in the marginals in our garden pond, and photographed it. Then I remembered that it had appeared in exactly the same place as one had last…
It’s that time of year again – May/June and the roadside verges are covered in umbrella-shaped (umbelliferous) white flowers. I always used to tease my mother about whether they were all cow parsley or whether some were other species such as angelica or wild carrot. Neither of us really had a clue.
Cow Parsley
I got my camera out on a recent walk down Yorkshire country lanes. This one, I think, is definitely cow parsley. White flowers, five petals per flower head.
The leaves are fern-like. It is said they produce an aniseed-like scent when crushed – but don’t, there are several similar poisonous species.
A further source of confusion is that cow parsley is a member of the carrot family.
Wild Angelica
The next fairly easy one is wild angelica. The flowers have a pinkish tinge, and the stems have a tint of purple and may be downy as in the picture or hairless.
The leaves look hefty with a threefold pattern.
Also a member of the carrot family, Angelica is a very vigorous plant that can grow up to 2.5 metres high.
Most of the discussion on the internet is on how to get rid of this invasive plant in gardens.
Wild Carrot or Queen Anne’s Lace
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I don’t think we saw any wild carrot on our walk. It is similar to cow parsley, perhaps more feathery leaves and often a distinctive single central red or purple flower. When rubbed the leaves smell of carrot.
Hemlock, Hogweed and the rest
These also look like cow parsley. Hemlock is poisonous, and hogweed (Cow Parsnip) can cause a rash.
Then there’s Great MasterWort, Saxifrage, Sanicle, Hairy Chervil, Cowbane, Caraway,…
No wonder mother and I never really got to grips with what was not cow parsley.
Pictures taken on our walk, apart from the wild carrot central flower illustration.
I got my camera out on a recent walk down Yorkshire country lanes. This one, I think, is definitely cow parsley. White flowers, five petals per flower head.
The leaves are fern-like. 
The leaves look hefty with a threefold pattern.
