Wall Weeds

I have been doing a very interesting free foraging course run by Lad from the Boiler House. This is my homework. All of these photos were taken on 19/10/23, except the chicory flower.

I thought I would go on a 15 minute walk from home and see how many edible plants grew by the pavement. At least, they would be edible if we had not used lead in petrol for so many decades and paved our roads and pavements with asphalt.

 

UPDATE (1/8/2024): The Natural History Museum has just published a guide called Pavement Plants: A guide to plants frequently growing on pavements in the UK. As well as paying for a physical copy, it is available for free to download at this link.

The first plant I saw was a garden escape, an exotic Adria bellflower with the ridiculous botanical name of  Campanula portenschlagiana. Many of the Campanula species have edible leaves, though some are more chewy than others. Some have edible tuberous roots. Native species include bellflowers, harebells and rampion.

 

 

On the Origin of the Manchester and Salford Bee: New Edit

 

Cotton flower in a Manchester mini-greenhouse with a Manchester hoverfly. 

I tried to get a photo with a bee but the cotton was late flowering and 

there were no bees around on the few sunny days that a flower was open.

 

This article arose from annoyance that so many reports about the Manchester Bee just stated that "it represents Industry". I knew that there must be more to the story. I was not prepared for how much more there was and how carried away I got while researching the history of symbolic bees in Manchester and Salford. 

I wrote most of this article 6 years ago. I have finally got around to editing it properly over the last couple of months. I have reorganised the sections so that it makes a more readable progression, hopefully. I have also added a few new things, not just the photo of the cotton flower that opened this week.

The Manchester and Salford Bees appear to have been chosen as symbols by those Councils out of respect for the reforming Prime Minister Robert Peel, whose coat of arms included a Bee. Peel had helped carry through the changes in local democracy that allowed the Manchester and Salford councils to be set up. He also changed the tax system to remove a huge burden on the poor against the wishes of his Party, almost destroyed the Tory Party and sacrificed his political career. By that act he changed Britain into a fairer and more inclusive country, relative to the horror show it had been before. The Manchester and Salford councils had both been ardent supporters of those law reforms and celebrated Peel's success. Peel and the cotton kings who formed Manchester Council were all representatives of reforming, non-conforming Industry, opposed to the oppressive landowners of the Establishment. 

The Manchester Council motto may also have come from a 17th century bee-keeping manual.

I also put together some appendices on the local history of other bees in Manchester and Salford.

This article is dedicated to those who lost their lives or were wounded by the bombing at the Manchester Arena on the 22nd of May 2017 and all those killed or scarred by all the wars and atrocities throughout human history. 

We all just get one short life and to decide to destroy that life is an unspeakable treachery against humanity.

My version of the "terrestrial globe, semée of bees volant".
Midsummer Manchester unusually hidden by clouds.
Thanks NASA

 

 

↓ An excessive amount of reading follows the jump break, with quite a few nice illustrations.

Canal Towpath Orchids

 

On May 31st this year, I visited the Bridgewater Canal by Stretford Mall to check out the orchids. Yesterday afternoon (August 11th), I visited again to see whether the fruit were ripe. As you can see from the second picture above, they were. The Council stopped mowing them sometime in the last thirty years, so they can seed themselves. They have spread to produce a really healthy population and a beautiful show in May/June.

Cotton buds

 

I've just noticed that I have got buds on two of my cotton plants. The plants are not terribly happy, I think I have not been feeding them enough. I was hoping they wouldn't get too big for the miniature greenhouse. The weather has also been pretty grim. However, I am very excited that I might get a flower or two. 

This variety is GreenCot from Cotton Acres. and produces naturally coloured olive-green cotton. This is what the seeds looked like when they arrived.

I found out that you don't have to shave the seeds to get them to germinate. In fact, it seemed to stop them germinating. All of the seeds sprouted that I just shoved into pumice as they were.

 

 

Gagaimo

 

I only have one individual of this plant, now 2 years and 4 months old. Last year it produced just one fruit, despite the fruit coming in pairs. This year it has had eleven fruit already and is still flowering.

 

Common Milkweed fruit

 

I had a bumper crop of Asclepias syriaca fruit last year. Compared to the one fruit I have had in the previous eight years, any crop is surprising. I now wish I had spent some time photographing the insects on the flowers last year, as I have done before. I have no idea what insect did the pollinating.