This is the time of year to start appreciating the little flowers that we usually call weeds, but which go on flowering well into the winter when the grander ones have gone. One of the commonest of all British flowers, and one that can be found all the year round, is chickweed. Its fresh green leaves are now sprouting everywhere after the rain. Its tiny white flowers have five petals, all split a long way down the middle, so that it looks as if it has ten very fine petals. It is a relative of the greater stitchwort, which has similar split petals, and turns the hedge banks a brilliant white with its flowers in spring, just as the white hawthorn flowers are coming out above the banks.
Another plant with very small flowers that will go on flourishing into December, or even later, is knotgrass. It is a wiry plant that grows close to the ground, often on grassy footpaths, where it survives being trampled on.
Its flowers grow in clusters at the base of the leaves, and are greenish with a pink or white margin, while the leaf-stalks have a distinctive silvery tinge.