Roadside Flowers

Yesterday evening I made a quick visit to one of the legacies of the 2012 Olympic sailing - a new road to Weymouth (after 30 years of arguing!). The local authority had insisted that the sides and top of a cutting through a chalk hill were sown with wild flower seed. The result is a riot of wild flowers every year that is home to a huge variety of butterflies and other insects.

Evening was too late for butterflies, thick cloud (after a sunny day) meant poor light, wide aperture and very shallow DOF, and a light but gusty breeze made focus and composition difficult. Here are some that weren't total failures - with a 'What is it?' challenge at the end.

Taken with K3 + Irix 150mm macro - and no tubes!

Comments welcome as always.

1. Wild carrot, flower starting to open



2. Wild carrot and soldier beetle.



3. Crop of 2 (for members of the Bug Club)



4. Bee orchid (the main reason for the visit)



5. What is it?



Steve

Nice set Steve - that first shot is lovely - soft, pastel palette, just the right amount of selective focus - spot on

Is the last one some sort of Chive :

Agree, the fist is spot on
Never seen wild carrot flowers before 👍
Bee orchid is nice too,
Hmm last one, is it a thistle, if it isn't a chive ?

What's this about a bug club

Lovely set, 5 is the more imaginative one to my eyes, great one! I'd think chive first, thistle second, and, if neither, clover?

Thanks for your interest and comment, folks. The mystery flower isn't a chive, it isn't clover, it's not quite a thistle - it is a knapweed (not sure what variety).

The bee orchid looks a lot better at full res. There's a lot of detail in the flower, which makes it stand out nicely from the OOF background.

Wild carrot is fairly common round here, it likes dry, chalk soils. According to the wild flower book, all umbellifers (including cow parsley and hogweed) are members of the carrot family. The wild carrot flower head is one of the more interesting. When it sets seed, the whole head curls up into a ball. Fascinating and photogenic. Here's a seed head from last year.




Steve