Pheasant's Eye and White Viper's Bugloss

We had to go to Winchester again on Sunday and this time we came back via Salisbury Plain so that I could have a quick look at the Pheasant's Eye site that I know of there. I'd already heard from a contact that there are flowers this year and as I hadn't found any last year this encouraged me to make the return visit. The plant is so rare in the UK that each time I see it may well be the last! Unfortunately there wasn't a very good show of other 'arable weeds' on the site this year especially the rarer species of poppy but a good number of the Pheasant's Eye certainly made the trip well worthwhile. When I first learned of the site quite a few years ago I was told that a white form of Viper's Bugloss also grows there and until this visit I hadn't seen any. Actually the white flowers were not strictly speaking white but very, very, very pale pink. I suspect that just the blue pigments are missing in these particular specimens. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived there, and cloudy, so there were hardly any butterflies about. So it's just flowers again in this post. Butterflies coming up from a trip to Portland on Sunday though...stay tuned!

Pheasant's Eye - Adonis annua

 

Viper's Bugloss - Echium vulgare

 

Common Toadflax - Linaria vulgaris

Field Pansy - Viola arvensis