Caroline being trapped inside by her broken front-door lock prevented her from leading the morning walk, but luckily for all Stephen was able to take over. Thankfully Caroline was released in time to lead the afternoon walk. 

In both groups we noted the amount of cow parsley. Later we compared those flowers to elder, which are similar, even though the two plants aren’t in the same family. We also compared shining crane’s-bill (leaves shiny-ish, petals rounded) to dove’s-foot crane’s-bill (leaves duller, petals notched). We looked at creeping and meadow buttercups (the latter has finely divided leaves), and then the only bulbous buttercup to survive the mowing: the leaves are similar to the meadow buttercup’s but under the flower, you can see that the sepals fold back on themselves. Another highlight was comparing two related plants: the yellow goat’s-beard and the mauve of salsify (pictured). 

We focused on two main habitats. In the grassland near the Newland Road entrance we considered how grasses hold soil and store carbon, and we looked at grasses ranging from tall false oat grass to short perennial ryegrass. We also saw other plants such as lucerne, mugwort and ragwort and discussed some of their uses past and present. In the habitats that lie between the hedge around the Cricket Pitch and the Conservation area, we looked at plants ranging from the tiny duckweed on the surface of the ponds to the tall reed sweetgrass. We compared hogweed to cow parsley and also looked at the clusters of spores under a fern frond under a hand lens. 

Caroline started the walk with a question: are grasses flowering plants? The answer is yes – the flowers are so much less showy because they are wind pollinated and therefore don’t have to advertise their pollen using colour and scent in the way that insect-, bird- and mammal-pollinated flowers do. 

Grasses can be tricky to identify, so it’s best to start with some that are easy to differentiate: we looked at rye grass, wall barley, cock’s-foot and annual meadowgrass. 

Another tricky group are the dandelion-like flowers (part of the daisy family): we compared dandelion with smooth sowthistle, hawk’s-beard and nipplewort. 

mongst the other topics we covered were the way that some leaves are positioned to avoid overlapping to catch the maximum amount of light, how leaves on the same plant can have different shapes and how plants of the same species can vary in size and form depending on where they happen to be growing. 

Caroline led two walks to look at the wildflowers that are already out and about this year. There was information on identification and lots of interesting background stories on folklore of the plants. We started at the Park Visitor Centre and made our way down to the area where the compost head lies.

Caroline explained the difference between the Lesser Celandine and Greater Celandine which can be both found in the park, but only the Lesser is flowering. They both have yellow flowers, but are unrelated. Lesser Celandine is a relative of the Buttercup whereas Greater Celandine is in the Poppy family.

Stephen led an overflow walk that just concentrated on the identification of the flowers.

Very unlucky with the weather for our wildflower walks in October with the rain trying hard to put us off. No chance, Caroline led a morning and afternoon walk in the south eastern corner of the park. It was impressive the list of plants seen flowering as just a casual look in the park gives one the impression there is nothing much. The largest number of plants flowering were bristly ox-tongues near the cricket pavilion. The picture on the left shows some of hardy afternoon group admiring them. Next time there will be sun. 

Caroline led two wildflower walks from the Gas Hut to the cricket scrub via the Lower Road (where there are always some interesting flowers on the south side). She explained some of the ways to tell flowers that are grouped into the same family. The flowers in the daisy family, for example, are not a single flower but many flowers clustered together to look like a single flower. Daisy family species spotted included common fleabane, creeping thistle, Michaelmas daisy, bristly oxtongue, pineapple-weed, common ragwort and knapweed. Red bartsia (a plant in the figwort family that is partially parasitic on grasses) was also spotted, and we all had a look at the fairy’s slippers under the hood of the white deadnettle (in the mint family and therefore unrelated to nettles).

Stephen led an overflow walk starting from the opposite end of the park, with the highlight of a flax flower.

It’s amazing how many plants you can find if you look closely at a stretch of grass or the roadside verges in a park. Caroline and Stephen led three walks and between them found 70-odd species, which included several grasses, and flowers from the cabbage, daisy, dock, mint, rose, and pea families.

A cold and overcast April day for our Spring wild flower walk. An impressive 19 people were present to search for wild flowers and a few native trees.

Meeting at the Park Visitor Centre. We gave the participants a list of the flowers expected to be seen. (and all bar one were!)

By the centre, we saw Daisy (left), Lesser Celandine, Hybrid Bluebells, Herb Robert among many others with some participants trying to out-guess others....

Some trivia was added along the way including the fact that the Celandine comes from the Greek for swallow and flower is meant to welcome the arrival of these birds....

Another unsubstantiated fact was the the name oeing swept away in the Danube crying "Vergissmeinnicht". See here. or from German Wikipedia an alternative explanation: "Because the blue flowers remind of the folk belief in the eyes of newly in love people, forget-me-nots were given as love and loyalty, mostly from the man to the woman."

The other side of the car park, we found that the Wood Anemones were still flowering and someone spotted a flower not on the original list - a Smooth Sow-thistle. Double points!!!

Divertissement... We looked the Horse-chestnut and noticed how the colour changes from white and yellow to white and red when flowers are pollinated. Picture left courtesy of Conchita Navarro.

Wandering downhill, we looked the female and male holly flowers before crossing the road and heading towards the Paddock Car Park - a surprising wild flower hot spot.

Native bluebells, common vetch (left below) and most impressively a path through wild garlic.

After a look at some delicate Cowslips and Greater Stitchwort, we finished the walk with Borage and Greater Celandine and the last of decamped to the Capital Garden Centre for a welcome cup of tea and something nice to eat.

A good haul of flowers in a one hour short walk.

Disclaimedr. Links to Male Holly and Sow-thistle from elsewhere in the Park.

Pictures of all the flowers seen (except the Sow-thistle).

A full list of the flowers seen on the walk.

Good weather for our Flower Walk beginning.... We admired the Snowdrops by Park Information Centre and Hebe with Viburnum tinus before moving off into the Railway Orchard to spot one of the first Cherry Laurels in flower.

Walking anticlockwise around The Grove, we came to the crocuses by the Parkland Walk exit. Another little patch of Snowdrops and then some Cow Parsley in flower.

Mahonia was flowering by the Little Dinosaurs. We then did a little trek past the Springfield Orchard to discover some of the first Forsythia flowers. Here one of the participants caught sight of a flower not on the original list.... .... a late Bramble. 

Walking along the Lime Avenue we passed a couple of early Lesser Celandines.

Turning left we walked back past the Information Centre and saw some Hebe and Leatherleaf Viburnum and also Viburnum davidii.

We turned left to look at a Garrya eliptica with its lovely dangling flowering before doubling back and spotting an odd Brachyglottis flower.

Crossing the road we spotted some Cyclamen.

Then the route was up towards the Palace passing some Chickweed, Hazel and Ash flowers before crossing the road and ticking off Shepherds Purse.

Daisies and Dandelions had been appreciated by this point.

The skies turned black and hail poured from the sky turning the ground white for a brief few minutes. We ended the walk below the BBC Tower with White Deadnettle, Red Deadnettle and Annual Mercury.

Full list of flowers seen on the walk.

A lot of people turned up for this walk so maybe it was not such a good experience for those who came....

We followed a route along the Lower Road with participants trying to find any wild flowers actually in flower.

They were given a list of what might be seen, but with no illustrations. Some attendees were beginners and some more expert than the person leading the walk, but most seemed spot some of the flowers along the route.

Lots of small flowers, but among the larger, more spectacular ones were Rosebay Willowherb, Mallow and Bristly Ox-Tongue.

We reversed past the Nature Pond, and just managed to see one or two Goat Willow flowering and making their common name of pussy willow very evident.

Back at top the leader forgot to point out the White Dead-Nettle(shame). 

We then finished by taking our lives in our hands and crossing Alexandra Palace Way. Just over the road is a warm, South facing, grassy slope where we saw the last group of flowers - Scentless Mayweed, Common Chickweed, Sticky Mouse-Ear and Common Whitlow Grass together with Gorse with its vibrant yellow flowers.

On same day as last year, we held a Wildflower walk starting form the Park Information Centre.

We had a pre-prepared list of wild flowers to find on the walk and enjoyed ticking them off as they were found.

This time, instead of walking around The Grove we went down to the Paddock Car Park. The edge of the car park was especially good for producing a number of wild flowers that enjoyed the poor soil and habitat edge.

We spotted several plants not on our list including salsify and the small flowers of cleavers.

This link takes you to a list of wild flowers seen in flower on the walk.

We had our fourth members' walk on the evening of Thursday, 15th May in The Grove.

We started with a patch of mauve honesty by the railway bridge at the Dukes Avenue entrance.

The largest and most impressive Spring flowers out was Queen Anne's Lace (Cow Parsley) with its delicate white flowers swathing wild areas of The Grove.