Barren Strawberry, Potentilla sterilis

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Barren Strawberry, Potentilla sterilis

Barren Strawberry, Potentilla sterilis

The Barren Strawberry, Potentilla sterilis, is one of the first flowers of spring and can be in flower as early as February, especially in a mild winter like this one, though in cooler areas it will flower into May. The nearest plants are in my local cemetery, where it grows in the rougher grassy areas beneath trees. This is its usual habitat, though it will grow out in the open in upland areas. The plant can also be found on walls and in rock crevices.

Like Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), which I wrote about last June, Barren Strawberry is a low-growing perennial and a member of the Rosaceae (the Rose family). Both plants have attractive white flowers.

Although the plants are superficially similar, there are a number of differences between Wild and Barren Strawberries.

Wild Strawberry flowers later in the year than Barren Strawberry (April to July, rather than February to May). Barren Strawberry has more widely spaced petals than Wild Strawberry and these are notched, and the sharply pointed green sepals extend at least as far as, or further than, the petal tips. Wild Strawberry has bright green, shiny leaves but those of Barren Strawberry are dull, grey-green with spreading hairs and smaller, with less prominent veins. Each Wild Strawberry leaflet tapers to a point but the terminal tooth on each Barren Strawberry leaflet is shorter than those on either side, giving it a more rounded appearance.

The ‘barren’ in Barren Strawberry and the plant’s specific name, sterilis, give a key difference from the Wild Strawberry: its fruits are not edible so there is no point in waiting for any red strawberries to form.

The fruit in both Barren and Wild Strawberries is an achene, a dry fruit which contains the seed. But in the Wild Strawberry the receptacle swells to produce an edible accessory fruit, the strawberry that we know and love. In Barren Strawberry the receptacle doesn’t swell and we are left with a small, dry and hard fruit, to the disappointment of foragers.

Potentilla sterilis is widely distributed in the British Isles. It is native here and throughout  much of the rest of Europe (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, , Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It is also listed as “doubtfully present” in the North Caucasus and former Yugoslavia. Barren Strawberry has been introduced into Newfoundland in North America, where it is known as the Strawberryleaf Cinquefoil.

Clive Stace lists 16 species of Cinquefoils (Potentilla) in his “New Flora of the British Isles” (Fourth Edition 2019). Potentilla means “powerful, despite its small size” or “little powerful one” and is derived from the Latin word potens and French potence, which both mean “strong”, “powerful”, “mighty”, or “potent”. This is a reference to the claimed medicinal value of some plants in this genus.

British relatives of Barren Strawberry include Silverweed (Potentilla anserina; edible root and young leaves, astringent), Tormentil (Potentilla erecta;  astringent, folk medicine for diarrhoea) and Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans; edible young leaves, antispasmodic and astringent). These three plants have yellow petals but others, such as Rock Cinquefoil, Potentilla rupestris, have white petals. The Shrubby Cinquefoil, formerly Potentilla fruticosa, widely grown as a garden shrub and found growing wild the British Isles in a Cumbria and Upper Teesdale in Northern England and in parts of Western Ireland, has been reclassified as Dasiphora fruticosa. The wild form has yellow petals but garden cultivars can also have white or orange flowers.

In grassland, Barren Strawberry becomes much more difficult to find once it has finished flowering, as the grass grows above the plant, making it more or less invisible. By late summer, the plant is but a distant memory, until spring arrives and the flowers open once more.

Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica

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Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica

Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica

The Eastern Daily Press headline read “Endangered wildflower once again blooming near North Walsham“. The wildflower was Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica, and it was thriving on two of Norfolk’s former railway lines now used as footpaths: on Weaver’s Way at Felmingham (between Aylsham and North Walsham) and on the Paston Way at Knapton (just outside North Walsham, to the north-east).

The newspaper article appeared in July 2017 and we kept a copy to remind us to look for the plant, but it wasn’t until early June 2019 that we finally made the trip.

We took the train from Norwich to North Walsham and then walked 2.5 miles south-west along Weaver’s Way to Felmingham. It is a lovely walk and the Dog Roses and Elder bushes were in flower. We stopped frequently on the way there and back to look at insects. We eventually reached Felmingham and found the Small-flowered Catchfly growing in a sandy cutting just west of the station, just as advertised.

The white-flowered form of Silene gallica (shown above) is pretty enough, but the Felmingham railway cutting was also home to plants with pink flowers, and plants with white petals blotched with red. The latter form is exquisite and known as Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria. It is easy to see why it is sometimes cultivated in gardens.

Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria

Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria

Silene gallica - pink flowered form

Silene gallica – pink flowered form

Silene gallica is in the Pink family, the Caryophyllaceae, and is a relative of Spanish Catchfly and Spring Sandwort, which I have already written about on this blog.

It is a lovely annual plant of disturbed, sandy ground, with sticky stems and leaves and campion-like flowers with five petals. In Britain it flowers from June to October, but from March to May in southern Europe. It grows up to 30cm (12 inches) tall. It is a native of Eurasia and North Africa but in Britain the plant is classified as an Archaeophyte (non-native plants that became established before 1500). According to Plantlife, Silene gallica var quinquevulneraria is only known as a casual of garden origin.

Small-flowered Catchfly needs disturbed ground to grow, and at Felmingham rabbits are providing plenty of this by burrowing into the sandy banks of the old cutting. Bramble clearance by the North Walsham Conservation Group, a local group of The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), has helped as well.

Elsewhere, the plant is mainly found in arable fields on sandy or gravelly soils, and on old walls and waste ground. It also grows in open, drought-prone coastal grassland on banks and cliffs, and in sand dunes in the Channel Islands. Seeds mainly germinate in autumn, but the seedlings cannot tolerate temperatures below -10 °C.

The plant was once widespread in the UK and has been recorded in 283 ten km squares as far north as central Scotland. However, it is in steep decline in Britain and has been given the status of “Red – Endangered & Critically Endangered”. It is covered by the Norfolk Biodiversity Action Plan and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (referenced by Plantlife in its species dossier). The information sheet for Plantlife’s “Back From The Brink” project gives useful habitat management advice.

As so often, modern agricultural practices are the main reason for its decline. Field margins are often removed and the land is sprayed with herbicides and fertilisers. If herbicides don’t kill off the plants, fertilisers enrich the soil and allow coarser plants to outcompete the delicate catchfly. On the Welsh coast, tourist developments are also a threat.

Sliene gallica has now virtually disappeared from northern Europe, but it is widespread in central and southern Europe and occurs as a roadside weed throughout much of the temperate world.

Small-flowered catchfly, Silene gallica

Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria, growing on a sandy bank.

Wikipedia lists two other English names for Small-flowered Catchfly – Common Catchfly and Windmill Pink.

The plant isn’t considered to be edible. The Plants For A Future website lists a couple of possible medicinal uses but you should look for cures elsewhere, given the plant’s rarity in Britain.

Daisy Bush, Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’

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Brachyglottis 'Sunshine'

Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ with a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.

We all need some sunshine, especially on a dull and damp December day.

Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ provides cheer during the winter with its mass of evergreen, greyish, ovate leaves backed with white felt. It then provides an extra treat in June and July with its yellow daisy flowers (hence the name ‘Daisy Bush’). It is a popular garden shrub and was one of my Dad’s favourites, so I have fond memories of it from early childhood.

My Dad knew Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ as Senecio greyi, which has now been reclassified as Brachyglottis greyi. This is a native of New Zealand’s North Island, where it grows on rocky outcrops on the coast in hot sunny places with poor soils, eventually forming mounds up to 2 metres (6.5 feet) tall and 1.8 metres (6 feet) wide. It is a member of the Asteraceae, the daisy family (note 1).

However, Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ is not pure Brachyglottis greyi, but one of the Dunedin Hybrids, the result of crosses originating in horticulture early in the twentieth century between three New Zealand species of Brachyglottis. The parent species are described on the NZ Flora website: Brachyglottis greyi, Brachyglottis laxifolia, and Brachyglottis compacta. B. laxifolia and B. compacta are shorter than B. greyi – both only grow to 1 metre (3.3 feet) tall.

Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ is a very adaptable garden plant. It is given a hardiness rating of H4 on the RHS website (hardy through most of the UK, -10 to -5 degrees Celsius) and likes sun or semi-shade on a variety of soils. It does is especially well where the soil is well drained. In our north-facing back garden it is doing well on sandy loam, where it is in the sun during the afternoon. When I was growing up, it also thrived in our gardens in North-east Scotland (slightly acidic loam) and the West Midlands (clay).

The shrub is also very tolerant of exposed seaside places and can be grown as a windbreak. My grandmother grew large and luxuriant specimens in her seaside garden on Anglesey in North Wales (note 2). From my own experience it is drought tolerant and doesn’t get damaged by slugs and snails. It is also resistant to deer and usually free of any pests or diseases. Low branches sometimes root and can be used to propagate new plants; it’s easy to take cuttings too.

It will spread out sideways to form a wide, low bush but it can be kept in check (or in a neater shape, perhaps as a hedge) by a regular prune during the growing season. The RHS website gives pruning instructions (pruning Group 8). If you just want the foliage, it is possible to remove the flowers, though for me they are a major part of the plant’s attraction.

Although it isn’t a native British species, Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ has been become naturalised in parts of the British Isles in the last thirty years, particularly in grassy places, on rough ground and in sand dunes. The plant is not edible and has no known medicinal uses, according to the Plants for a Future website.

For a non-native, it is a surprisingly good plant for wildlife. Butterflies (such as the Small Tortoiseshell pictured above) and hoverflies will visit the flowers and because the plant is a dense evergreen it is a favoured overwintering place for other insects. On warm days in spring in our back garden, Gorse Shieldbugs (Piezodorus lituratus) bask and sometimes mate on the leaves. Our Dunnocks (Prunella modularis) take advantage of this insect life by hunting on the ground beneath the branches.

Gorse Shieldbugs

Gorse Shieldbugs on the leaves of Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’.

Notes

Note 1 – I have already written about other members of the Asteraceae, including Oxeye Daisy, Pineapple Weed, Gallant Soldier, Dandelion, Mexican Fleabane, Nodding Bur-Marigold and Bristly Oxtongue. I give more information on the family and the structure of their flowers in my post on Nodding Bur-Marigold.

Note 2 – My grandmother’s Brachyglottis bushes seemed to tower high above me, but I was only a child so they were probably no more than 1.8 metres (six feet) tall.