Urban nature: something special for summer

With so many species in stark decline in the countryside, the urban environment is increasingly becoming a refuge for certain species. Most plant species that inhabit the urban landscape are generalists, easy propagators, speedy developers or heat and drought tolerant. For some plants the urban landscape has become a growing place because of a specific growing environment combined with a favourable management regime.

The Broad-leaved Helloborine (Epipactis helleborine) is a woodland orchid found all over Europe and Asia. I saw large clumps (left) growing in the garden of a home for the elderly beneath some hollies. The Perennial Pea (Lathyrus sp.) used to grow in grassland and in cornfields. These plants (middle) with their odourless bright pink flowers were growing in the grass verge along a gyratory road. The Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea) is a biannual or short-lived plant that grows on moist sandy soils on the edges of woodland or along hedges. I encountered this rare plant growing next to a path in a 1920s park with large trees and shrubs.