Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

MANY people think that spring flowers in England are the most beautiful in the world.

This may be true - but our summer flowers are equally beautiful.

There are also some which grow locally but which have been brought to England from other parts of the world.

A few weeks ago a letter in my postbag asked me to explain the difference between a plant and a weed.

The answer is that there is none - it just depends where it is growing.

A weed is a plant growing where you don't want it.

For example, a beautiful sweet-scented rose growing in a field of potatoes is a weed.

This week I enjoyed a wonderful walk and discovered three flowers, two of which are weeds because very few people like them, especially if they are gardeners.

The rosebay willowherb is a beautiful plant with its red flowers looking like a flame and for this reason it is often called the fireweed.

It still grows alongside railway lines and its nickname dates back to the time when steam trains caused sparks which set fire to the embankments.

Rosebay can grow so fast that it was the first to appear following the fire. The second "weed" is called Himalayan balsam.

It has "escaped" from water gardens and now grows well along riversides, even those which are very polluted.

It grows in such profusion that those trying to control pollution and manage rivers do not like it. It is also called policeman's helmet because of the shape of the flowers.

I prefer the name touch-me-not, given because when the flowers die back the pods "explode" when they are touched and the seeds are thrown out for large distances.

The third of my flower favourites is the honeysuckle, which is also called bindweed and woodbine.

In the old days, honeysuckle was mixed with tobacco and produced a pleasant smoke.

Honeysuckle flowers are pollinated by bees and their scent is wonderful.

You can see how it earns its name of bindweed when you follow the flowers downwards and see how the stems twist, turn and wind around the hedgerow trees, which they use as a support.

The moral of this story is that weeds can be wonderful.

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Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.