A Canal Calendar

A Year on the Towpath

The towpaths are full of wildflowers. There are a wide variety of grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees. The wild flowers can be found alongside the fields in the countryside and on the waste ground of the inner cities.  Common weeds are easy to over look as you walk by but why not take a moment to identify these flowers and find out their names. The names of the flowers often hark back to a bygone age when people had a closer relationship with plants. As the canal passes by farmland the towpath is often home to escaped crops, oil seed rape seems to be a common escapee.

Common Field Speedwell May	Common Vetch May	Cow Parsley May
Creeping Buttercup May	Horsetail ? May	Daisy May
Mustard Garlic May	Oil Seed Rape May	Smooth Hawks Beard May
Cuckooflower June	Giant Hogweed June	Foxglove June
Ox Eye Daisy & Red Clover June	Hogweed June	Yellow Flag Iris June
Arum Lilly June
Creeping Thistle July	Hemp Agrimony July	Tufted Vetch July
Unknown Blue Flower August	Chamomile August	Greater Bindweed August
Marsh Woundwort August	Meadow Pea August	Rosebay Willowherb August
Thistle August	Water Mint August	Ragwort August
Common Nettle August	Lords and Ladies August	White Dead Nettle August
Narrow Leaved Plantain August	Hawthorn Berries September	Elder Berries September