Species: Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium)
Family: Willowherbs (ONAGRACEAE)
Category: Flowering Plants
Location: NW
A. Flowering Plants
More extensive information on flowering plants can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Willowherbs (ONAGRACEAE)
The Evening Primrose is probably the best-known member of this large family. Most bees cannot collect the pollen grains of willowherbs because they are stuck together; only certain bee species can pollinate willowherbs, all of which flower from June. With the exception of the American Willowherb all the willowherbs listed here are native plants. Preparations from willowherbs are astringent, and must be taken with care, especially with regard to dosage.
C. Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium)
This tall patch-forming species is as familiar in woods as it is in the cemetery.
Rosebay Willowherb goes by various names in Britain, 'Bombweed', 'Fireweed' and 'Ranting widow' being the most prominent. All seem to be aptly applied. As Richard Mabey notes in his monumental and authoritative Flora Britannica, this "comparatively scarce woodland plant has turned into one of the most successful and colourful colonisers of waste places - car parks, railway embankments, roadsides, even cracks in chimneys".
Before the 1860s, the plant was noted as being scarce, even rare. Observers then started to notice a gradual change in the plant's frequency and distribution, this being particularly noticeable on railway and road embankments. Rosebay populations exploded again during the First and Second World Wars. A pattern appeared to be emerging.
In areas of woodland that had been felled to help the war effort, the plant flourished. So too after the German bombing raids of 1940: popular reports mentioned that burnt-out shops and homes in London came to be covered with colonies of the plant, sometimes "stretching as far as the eye could see".
Rosebay's seeds are produced at a prodigious rate: about 80,000 from each plant. They are equipped with fine plumes of feather-like hairs which enable them to be lifted and carried in the air - and to be pulled in the slipstream of road traffic and faster-moving trains. Coupled with the fact that the plant has prodigious colonising capabilities, especially on freshly-burned, dry ground, we can now appreciate why it is that this beautiful plant has become so successful.
The plant is a valuable supplier of nectar to insects, as is the main larval food source for the Elephant Hawk-moth.
Images
Rosebay Willowherb
Of all the willowherbs in Britain - and there are perhaps more than a dozen - the Rosebay Willowherb has the largest flowers.
Rosebay Willowherb
Rosebay Willowherb is a tall patch-forming species as familiar in woods as it is in the cemetery.
Rosebay Willowherb
Rosebay Willowherb is a tall patch-forming species as familiar in woods as it is in the cemetery.
Rosebay Willowherb
The fluffy seeds of Rosebay Willowherb emerge in late summer, here in early August 2022 during an exceptional heatwave. As the long, straight pods open to release the seeds, they curl into a tangle of spirals.
