November can seem like a rehearsal for winter as the
days shorten, temperatures fall and deciduous trees make their final
preparations for shedding their leaves. It is not though a month entirely of
gloom with Nature snuggling down to sleep through the long nights. A few wild flowers can still be found adding colour to the landscape in the milder
parts of Britain.
The plants I discovered on a walk at the beginning of
the month can be divided into four groups. The first would be the last remnants
of species that mainly flower in September and October such as Ivy and bramble
flowers. The second group are those species that take advantage of
Falmouth’s mild coastal climate to flower for much of the year, examples of
these would be Red Campion and Ivy-leaved Toadflax. A few individual
plants of spring flowering species can be enticed into flowering in autumn by
mild weather, the primroses and wood sorrel flowers I saw for example. Finally there are the winter flowering species that tend to be garden escapees for example Winter Heliotrope.
In all I spotted twelve species flowering, a reasonable count for early November.
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