Hainault Forest Website

Written, Designed and Photographed by © Brian Ecott

FLORA

Autumn flowers (August onwards)

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The autumn flowers provide a welcome source of nectar for insects late in the year.

TEASEL Dipsacus fullonum. Used for carding wool i.e. teasing out the individual  fibres of wood before spinning in former times. Plant up to 2 metres tall. A good source of nectar in the autumn. Found on the farm and on the old reservoir site. Photo: 1st August 2006. Farm.

FIELD BINDWEED Convolvulus arvensis. Found along path edges and waste ground where it creeps along. Has arrow-head shaped leaves.  Flowers are white, pink or stripped pink and white. Photo: 1st August 2006 along Sunnymede path.

COMMON FLEABANE Pulicaria dysenterica  Found around the northern part of the lakeside and in the newly acquired land at Havering Park Farm.

Photo: 16th August 2006. By the lake.

COMMON MICHAELMAS DAISY Aster x salignus A garden escape. Found in the plantation and the back of the lake in the fenced area.

Photo: 6th October 2005.

 WILD CARROT Daucus carota. Found in the wild flower meadows especially on Hog Hill.  It is a late flowering umbellifer. The seed head (right)  looks like a tiny birds nest.  Photos: 6th August 2006.

YARROW or MILFOIL  Achillea millefolium. Found throughout the forest in grassland and waste places. The plant remains a healthy green when all the grassland around it is parched. Although superficially like an umbellifer, it is in fact a composite flower related to the daisies. Its Latin name millefolium refers to its feathery cut leaves which look like a thousand leaflets. Occasional pink inflorescences may be found. Photo: 6th August 2006.

HEATHER or LING Calluna vulgaris.  Found in the Heathland.

Photo: 6th August 2006.

DWARF GORSE Ulex minor. Found in the Heathland. A Nationally rare species. Flowers July - October when Gorse Ulex europaeus is not flowering. Photo: 6th August 2006

 

 

 

 

HOARY RAGWORT Senecio erucifolius is the most abundant ragwort throughout the forest. It is a tall plant and very hairy when young. The flowering stem leaf is the best identification. Photos: 6th August 2006. Wild flower meadow.

COMMON RAGWORT Senecio jacobaea. Not so common in the forest. There is an Act of Parliament which deals specifically with S. jacobaea in relation to its presence near horse grazing due to its toxicity.

A flowering stem leaf is also shown for comparison.

Photos: 9th August 2006.  Wild flower meadow.

 

 

 
AUTUMN HAWKBIT Leontodon autumnalis. Common in the cut grassland throughout the forest.  Photo: 16th August 2006. On the Common.

ROUGH HAWKBIT Leontodon hispidus. Common in the cut grassland throughout the forest, along with the Autumn hawkbit.

Photo: 16th August 2006. On the Common.