TWO noticeable plants on roadside verges and by woodland edges just now are the greater and lesser burdock. They both grow 3ft tall and are very bushy, with large downy leaves. They have egg-shaped flowerheads dotted all over them, each with a small pink bloom surrounded by hooked bristles. When the flowers die and the seeds develop in their place, the hooks, which are now attached to the seeds, turn brown and hard, and catch in animal fur and in trouser legs. They are quite difficult to brush out — but in this way the seeds are dispersed. The main difference between the two species is that in the greater burdock these burrs are much larger — sometimes almost as large as a golf ball — while in the lesser burdock they are about the size of marbles. Both species are sometimes called beggar’s buttons.
In stubble fields — where they have not already been ploughed in — some delicate flowers are flourishing among the dry corn stalks. Scarlet pimpernel sprawls over the earth with its orange-red flowers and its knots of bright green leaves.
DJM