Petasides hybridus

Petasides hybridus - Värmland, Sweden

Stachys byzantina (Lamb's Ears, Woolly Betony, synonyms: Stachys lanata, Stachys olympics)

Ground-covering perennial, popular for its soft, fluffy foliage, native to Turkey, Armenia and Iran. They are named Lamb's Ears because of the curved shape and white, soft, fur-like hair coating. The plant is cultivated over much of the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and is naturalized in some locations as an escape from gardens. The extract of it has shown antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to vancomycin.

Astilbe chinensis cultivar Pumila

Zantadeschia (Calla Lily, Calla, Arum Lily)

Flowering plant in the family Araceae originating from southern Africa and named after the Italian botanist Giovanni Zantedeschia (1773-1846). The plant is despite its names neither a true lily, nor arum or calla. The flowers can be seen in many paintings.  The Zantadeschia species are poisonous.

Weeping Willow tree (Salix babylonica, Babylon Willow, Peking Willow) - Riehen, Switzerland

Salix babylonica is a popular ornamental tree, and it was described and named by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1736. Linnaeus believed by mistake that the tree described in the Bible in the opening of Psalm 137 was a weeping willow and gave three the name babylonica, although the tree originates from northern China.

Hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus)

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)


Common plant in Europe and western Asia along the banks of rivers and lakes and in damp meadows. The delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers cluster close together in handsome irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong. sweet smell. They flower from June to early September.

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)


Filipendula ulmaria has a long list of popular names including Meadowsweet, Mead Wort, Queen of the Meadow, Pride of the Meadow, Meadow-Wort, Meadow Queen, Lady of the Meadow, Dollof, Meadsweet, Bridewort.  

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) colony at a brook - photography by Alethe

Nepenthes maxima x ventricosa (pitcher plant, monkey cup)

Nepenthes are a family of carnivorous plants comprising roughly 140 species (including the cultivated hybrids). Most of the species use a pitfall trap with slippery inner walls and a fluid reservoir on the bottom containing viscoelastic biopolymers which prevent the captured prey to escape. The lid of the pitcher prevents the liquid to dilute with rain. The lower part of the trap contains glands which absorb nutrients from captured prey. Some other nepenthes species use equipment like flypaper traps to catch the prey. 

Female (the shorter ones on the left) and male alder catkins on the same plant - photography by nondesigner99

Alder trees lined up along a small brook - Riehen, Switzerland

Alder is the most common tree in riparian forests, and it improves soil fertility through the ability to fix nitrogen from the air due to a symbiotic friendship of alder with a nitrogen-fixing bacterium. This bacterium is found in root nodules, which may be as large as a human fist, with many lobes and light brown in appearance. The bacterium absorbs nitrogen from the air and makes it available for the tree. Alder, in turn, provides the bacterium with sugars. As a result of this mutually-beneficial friendship, alder improves the fertility of the soils where it grows.

Leaves and cones (female catkins) on the branch of an alder tree (Alnus)

Leaves and cones of the alder tree (Alnus)


With few exceptions, alders are deciduous (not evergreen), and their leaves are alternate, simple and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male (not seen on this picture) on the same plant as shorter female catkins (cones).

Lacecap (Hydrangea aspera) cultivar 'Tokyo Delight - hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Gold Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina) - Goldgarbe, gelbe Schafsgarbe

The genus Achillea - the common name yarrow is normally applied Achillea millefolium with white flowers, but may also be used for other species within the genus - has a long history as a powerful healing herb used topically for wounds, cuts and abrasions. The plant family is named for the Greek mythological character Achilles who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds. Navajo Indians considered it to be a 'life-medicine', chewed it for toothaches, and poured an infusion into ears for earaches.  Several cavity-nesting birds use yarrow to line their nests because adding yarrow to nests inhibits the growth of parasites. Yarrow is considered as an especially useful companion plant, not only repelling some bad insects while attracting good, but also improving soil quality. It is considered directly beneficial to other plants, improving the health of sick plants when grown near them.

Yarrow has also been used as food, and was very popular as a vegetable in the seventeenth century. The younger leaves are said to be a pleasant leaf vegetable when cooked as spinach, or in a soup. Yarrow is sweet with slight bitter taste. The leaves can also be dried and used as a herb in cooking.

Even the Neandertal people medicated themselves by eating yarrow, as has been found out these days.

 Common Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

The scientific name digitalis means 'finger-like' and refers to the ease with which a flower of the foxglove can be fitted over a human fingertip. The flowers vary with species from purple to pink, white and yellow, but the common foxglove is the best-known digitalis. The entire plant including the roots and seeds is toxic and this resulted in sinister names for the plant like Dead Man's Bells or Witches' Gloves. The extract of digitalis is used to treat heart conditions in the medicine.

Leaves and acorn of the Pin Oak tree (Quercus palustris)

Hazelnut (Corylus) shrub with fruits

Hazelnuts are rich in protein and unsaturated fat and they contain significant amounts of thiamine (vitamin B1) and vitamin B6, as well as smaller amounts of vitamin E and other B vitamins.

Yellow Iris

Smoketree (Cotinus coggygria, Smoke bush, Perückenbaum) - Riehen, Switzerland

Hollyhock (Alcea)

Green almonds (Prunus dulcis)

The young, developing fruit of the almond tree can be eaten whole (green almonds) when they are still green and fleshy on the outside and the inner shell has not yet hardened. The fruit is somewhat sour, but it's a popular snack in the parts of Middle East, eaten dipped in salt to balance the sour taste. Available only from mid April to mid June (northern hemisphere) pickling or brining extends the fruit's shelf life.  

Horse-chestnut trees - Riehen, Switzerland

Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum, Conker tree) derives its name from the erroneous belief that the tree was a kind of chestnut, together with the observation that eating them cured horses of chest complaints despite this plant being poisonous to horses. The processed and refined extract of horse-chestnut is used to cure varicose veins in legs and hemorrhoids. 

Ripe cherries on tree

Cosmos bipinnatus (cosmea, garden cosmos, Mexican aster) - Baltic Sea coast in Germany 

Flowering chestnut tree (Castanea)

Catkins of the flowering chestnut tree

Yellow Daisy

Thatched house roof made of water reed - Baltic Sea coast, Germany

Thatching is the traditional craft of building a roof with dry vegetation where straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather are used. 

Purple Acacia (Acacia purpureapetala) - Cagliari, Sardinia


Purple acacia trees line several boulevards and squares in Cagliari.

Red Cynara - Copenhagen market

Cynara is a genus of about ten thistle-like plants, the edible green artichoke (cynara cardunculus) being its best-known member. These red cynara were sold as ornamental plants on the market and are assumably a hybrid cultivated for this purpose (comments are welcome).   

Flowering Mediterranean Maquis Shrubland - Sardinia

The word maquis comes from the Italian word macchia (English: thicket). The extremely dense nature of maquis made it ideal for bandits and guerrillas, who used it to shelter from the authorities. It is from this meaning that Second World War French resistance movement, The Maquis, derived its name.

Sugar beet field - Riehen, Switzerland

Water Lily (Nymphaeaceae)

The flowering plants of water lilies live in fresh water areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The widespread use of them as ornamental plants resulted in their invasive spread in some areas as the plant can infest slow moving bodies of water and is difficult to eradicate. The water lily can easily be confused with the lotus flower, an entirely different plant. In contrast to the water lily, the lotus flower has a distinctive circular seed pod in its center.

Pink and yellow Anacamptis (Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis) - growing wild on Signal de Lure (1826 m) - Alps-de-Haut-Provence, France

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum, Cottongrass, Cotton-grass, Cottonsedge, bog cotton) - Swedish Lapland

Actually, cotton grass is not a grass, more a reed being a member of the sedge family. It grows in cold bogs, swampy ground, and as it is able to flourish in areas that are too cold for trees, it is widespread in Arctic Tundra. The fluffy white heads provide a warm nest for the seeds by storing solar radiation and they provide the wind-assisted dispersal of the attached seeds. Cotton grass was once used for stuffing pillows and mattresses and for making candle wicks. In the World War I it was harvested with sphagnum moss to make wound dressings. Nowadays, it is regarded as a costless side product of peat excavation and was used as oil sorbent in marine environmental protection experiments in Finland.

Sprouting ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Ginger is a reed-like plant with about one meter high stems, white and pink buds and yellow flowers and is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes. Ginger is consumed as delicacy, medicine, spice and tea. It is an excellent free radical trapper and may thus prevent cell damage and cancer and is used to preserve food. In folk medicine ginger is used to provide relief from stomach colics, pregnancy-related naucea and vomiting, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or joint and muscle injury. Tea brewed from ginger slices is a well-known folk remedy for colds. In Korea, slices of ginger root are stored with honey for a few weeks to obtain preserved sweetened ginger which are used to brew a sweetened tea by pouring them with boiling water.  

Magnolia blossom

Magnolia is an ancient plant which evolved over 95 million years ago, long before bees appeared. Its flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles and have extremely tough carpels to avoid damage from beetles. A magnolia tree has been first described in 1703 by Charles Plumier on the island of Martinique and was named Magnolia after the French botanist Pierre Magnol. The aromatic bark and the buds of Magnolia tree has long been used as medicine in China and Japan against as an anti-anxiety and cancer inhibiting agent. Magnolia bark has shown also anti-allergic and - astmatic properties and is a strong agent against caries. 

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric, fly amanita, toadstool) - Kinnekulle, Sweden

Amanita muscaria is a poisonous and psychoactive fungus which is easily recognizable by its white stem and white-spotted deep red cap. It is widely encountered in popular culture. Altough generally considered as poisonous, deaths from its consumption is extremely rare and it is eaten in some regions after parboiling. It was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the people of Siberia, and nowadays it is primarily famed for its hallucinogenic properties. The white spots may wash out with heavy rain. 

Canola field - Riehen, Switzerland

Canola was originally a trademark meaning "Canadian oil, low acid" and the plant is a cultivar of rapeseed or field mustard. Though the rapeseed oil with 63 % unsaturated fatty acids is a valuable edible oil, it was affected by significant amounts of erucic acid, a known toxin. With the cultivar canola the erucic acid content was reduced below 2 % which is believed to cause no harm in humans.

Clematis (Jackmanii Superba) - Mariefred, Sweden

Clematis, also called the aristocrat under climbers - due to its rich hues, was called 'pepper vine' by early pioneers of the American Old West as they used the seeds and the acrid leaves of the plant as a pepper substitute. However, the essential oils and compounds of the entire genus are extremely irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. Unlike black pepper, they can cause internal bleeding of the digestive tract if digested in large amounts. Despite its toxicity, Native Americans used very small amounts of clematis as an effective treatment for migraine headaches and nervous disorders.  

Rhododendron wardii var puralbum

Lime blossom (Tilia - also linden or basswood)

The lime tree produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers, the medicinal herb lime blossom. They are very important for bee populations and are used for herbal tea and tinctures.

Garlic bulbs (Allium sativum)

Garlic is rich in antioxidants and is a good medicine against heart disease, common cold and cancer. Garlic may make the actions of blood-thinning-medications stronger, increasing the risk of bleeding (University of Maryland Medical Center).

Herbarium - Samos, Greece

Black Mulberry fruits (Morus nigra) - Haut-Provence, France

The mulberry tree is depending on the type white- or black-fruited. Immature fruits are white, green or pale yellow. The black mulberry fruits turn pink, then red, dark purple and finally black when ripening. The taste is sweet with a nice flavor. 

Duckweed (Lemna minor)

Cornfield - Barley (Hordeum)