Friday, February 02, 2007

Rosette life


The rosettes above are all of wintergreen plants that have developed since late summer on the south facing bank of the still empty pondlet I have dug at the end of Troy Track.

On the left there are two smooth hawksbeards (Crepis capillaris), then - I think - a smooth sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) with a marsh thistle (Cirsium palustre) on the right.

The leaves clearly have a tendency to push themselves flat against the substrate, presumably to get the maximum sunlight, and I vaguely wondered why the lower leaves do not stand out at right angles from the vertical; did not, as it were try to make a right angle with gravity. I must try to see what happens on a north slope.

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