Wild Flowers in the Waste Ground

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

Having a dog means that I am up bright and early every morning to walk her. We are very lucky to have many lovely walks around where we live, we usually walk down to the village and then along the beach .. and then back along a little ‘meadow’ of waste land that has never been built upon.

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

It’s on these walks that I have started to notice just how many wild flowers are growing amongst the grass and rubble – and started to take my little compact camera with me on the walks (Dave’s not the only one with a camera here!!)

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I’m always interested in macro photography of a single flower – as I am fascinated with the intricate centres and patterns that each flower has – but even I have been amazed and astonished at the sheer number and variety of different flowers that I have captured – all within a very small area of grassland and abandoned waste land.

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I will try to put some names to these – but I warn you – I’ve never seen most of these amazing flowers before – and so many of them look so different close-up too!
This one is rather special – it’s called the Orchis Italica – or ‘the Hanging Naked Man Orchid’ .. take a closer look – can you see them?! .. how amazing is that?!

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I’ve been crawling around to get many of these shots – much to the amusement of our little dog who comes over and starts snuffling around wondering what I am up to! This one is familiar to South African friends as a Carpobrotus edulis or a Hottentot fig or sour fig and apparently the fruit are edible!

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

Poppies are always my favourites – they grow beautifully wild and unfettered here – such delicate petals that are lost at the first sign of a heavy rain

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

This little fella made me chuckle – it looks like a little contented fat man chortling! (well I do have an active imagination!!) Apparently it’s an Ophrys speculum – or mirror orchid

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I absolutely love this shot

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

and even more so – the same flower with a light dusting of frost:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

It’s amazing what you can capture if you get up close and personal! I think I’ll leave these to to get on with what comes naturally!

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I love the simplicity of this tiny little flower which required quite a zoom lens to capture it. It’s a Lathyrus cicera and is a species of wild pea known by the common names of red pea or flatpod peavine:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

And I think this one below is related to the chortling man above .. another tiny little flower hidden in the long grass belonging to the orchid family – this one is a Yellow Bee Orchid:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

The tiniest of flowers can have the prettiest markings:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

and the most delicate and intricate little spikes:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I went out specially to capture this little wild iris growing up into the morning sunshine complete with droplets of dew – such a beautiful pink colour:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

And was lucky enough to also capture this little beauty with the same dew still lightly frosting the back of the stems:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

It would be impossible to describe just how beautiful the meadow is in the morning sunshine, I’ve been trying for weeks to capture one of the many pretty butterflies that skip around us, fluttering and teasing in the breeze. Finally this one alighted just long enough for me to catch it for a second with the camera:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

It’s not all flowers though, here’s the local neighbourhood resident saying hello to us:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

I had no idea that daisies close up in this way at night, with their petals folded back like this – it almost seems to have been caught up in a wind tunnel:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

A few minutes of warm sunshine and they soon start to unfurl and look more natural:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

The colours of this one are just amazing and is definitely one of my favourite flowers:

Algarve Blog Wild Flowers

There were so many flowers that I have captured that it would be impossible to do anything more than put the remainder in a gallery for you to enjoy .. just click any image to start the slideshow – and if you know any of the names of them .. please do let us know!

And thank you to the members of the fabulous Gardening in the Algarve Facebook group – a very kind member sent me over to this Algarve Wildlife page which has enabled me to identify a few of the flowers!

 

 

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12 Responses to Wild Flowers in the Waste Ground

  1. Margaret Runciman says:

    Beautiful photographs . One of the things I love about the Algarve is the variety in shape , size and colour of the shrubs and flowers . Thanks very much for these .

    Ayr, Scotland

    >

  2. This much variety in one meadow? How incredible! The photos are truly beautiful! I tried to decide which is my favorite, but I couldn’t make a decision. What a nice way to walk a dog, Alyson! 🙂

  3. Becky B says:

    You have got some fabulous photographs here . . . . like you I love the Algarve flora. The best book I have found is the Kew – Field Guide to Algarve Wildflowers published last year. I’ve mentioned it in a recent post http://wp.me/p4kEHo-dH

  4. Sami Veloso says:

    Wow, what a great variety of wild flowers, I don’t think I’d seen most of them.
    Love the photos of the ones with dew on them, they look so delicate.

  5. carol brownson says:

    this time of year is the best

  6. Pingback: Our Secret sítio das fontes | Algarve Blog

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