|
Name |
Latin Name |
Origins |
Description |
|
Buddleja |
Buddleja davidii |
China 1890s |
The ubiquitous butterfly bush, with its fragrant spikes of purple or white
flowers, was introduced to gardens but soon escaped by means of its light
wind-dispersed seeds. Though it can be encroaching it is a godsend to
butterflies and moths and forms a familiar and lively sight on wasteland,
old walls, banks and scrub. |
|
Canadian goldenrod |
Solidago canadensis |
North America 1648 |
This vigorous relative of the scarce native goldenrod is a widespread
garden escape. Its numerous golden yellow flowers can provide a colourful
contrast to the purple michaelmas daisies amongst which it is often found.
It provides a useful source of nectar for insects such as the common blue
butterfly in the late summer but can also be invasive and may need to be
controlled in some circumstances. |
|
Cotoneasters |
Cotoneaster species |
China and the Himalayas. |
More than seventy species of cotoneaster are grown as ornamental trees and
shrubs in gardens and parks throughout Britain. Their attractive berries
are eaten by birds who thus disperse the seeds into the wild. |
|
Giant blackberry |
Rubus armeniacus |
Europe and SW Asia |
The commonest bramble in the wild in London has been bird-sown from
gardens. It has larger fruits than most native species, making for
excellent blackberry picking in the late summer. |
|
Guernsey fleabane |
Conyza sumatrensis |
Tropical South America 1984 |
Originally known as Sumatran fleabane, this vigorous grey-green annual
plant with heads of tiny daisy-like flowers is now frequent throughout the
capital in open habitats and disturbed ground. It has greatly benefited
from the "heat island effect" of the city and can grow 7 feet
tall. Already starting to be recorded outside London, it seems likely to
spread further as global warming and urbanisation continues |
|
Japanese knotweed |
Fallopia japonica |
Japan 1825-1840 |
Known sometimes as Japweed or Sally rhubarb, the shoots are eaten as a
vegetable in Japan. It was much admired by the Victorians for its
extraordinary vigour and architectural qualities and warmly recommended
for planting in ‘the pleasure ground or by the waterside’. However,
the plant is now notorious as an invader of open habitats where its dense
thickets can suppress other flora. However, its abundant late summer
flowers are attractive to insects and its thickets provide useful cover
for birds and small mammals. Hybridisation with Russian vine has formed
the Haringey knotweed, a unique plant found only at Railway Fields near
Finsbury Park. |
|
London plane |
Platanus x hispanica |
Hybrid.
Parent origin: Asia Minor & N America 1680 |
This familiar and majestic London tree, so characteristic
of the city’s squares and suburban streets, is the first
intercontinental hybrid tree to have arisen. Although of obscure origin,
its hybrid vigour and pollution tolerance allow it to thrive in London.
Seedlings are often found though they are seldom allowed to reach
maturity. |
|
London pride |
Saxifraga x urbium |
Hybrid.
Parent origin: W. Ireland & Pyrenees |
A favourite London garden plant which deserves its appellation. The name,
sentimentalised in Noel Coward’s song during the last war, is applied to
a range of rosette forming Saxifrages bearing clouds of starry pink or
white flowers on long stalks. The true London pride is a hybrid of St
Patrick’s cabbage and S. umbrosa from Spain. It often escapes
from gardens and can turn up in waste places, woods and by streams. |
|
London rocket |
Sisymbrium irio |
Mediterranean c.1650 |
Noted by 17th century botanists as growing in great abundance following
the great fire of London in 1666. It apparently became extinct in the
early 19th century but re-appeared in several places around the city at
the end of the Second World War. This annual plant with heads of tiny
yellow flowers has benefited from the warmth of central London. Although
scarce and sporadic elsewhere, it can still be found in abundance on
disturbed ground near the Tower of London and on the old Roman wall close
by. |
|
Michaelmas daisies |
Aster species |
N America early 1700s |
The purple flowers of these familiar garden plants add colour to wasteland
habitats and railway embankments throughout London in the late summer.
They can spread from gardens both vegetatively and through their light,
wind-dispersed seeds and provide nectar for a wide range of butterflies
and other insects at the end of the summer. |
|
Oxford ragwort |
Senecio squalidus |
Southern Europe, end 1800s |
Coming originally from the volcanic soils of Mount Etna in Sicily, this
plant was long grown as an exotic introduction at the Oxford Botanic
Garden. First recorded as an escape on the walls of that city in 1794, the
plant arrived in London at the end of the 19th century after spreading
along the railway system. Today, its cheerful yellow daisy flowers can be
seen throughout the capital on wall tops, pavement cracks and in other
such arid places. |
|
Chinese mugwort |
Artemisia verlotiorum |
China 1908 |
More widespread here than anywhere else in Britain. Tiny straw-coloured
flowers open very late in year (c. November). Spreads vigorously by
rhizomes. A hybrid with native mugwort has been found in London. |
|
Russian comfrey |
Symphytum x uplandicum |
Hybrid. Parent origin UK & SW Asia |
Commonest comfrey in London. Can be invasive. Provides nectar for
bumblebees. |
|
Goat’s-rue |
Galega officinalis |
Europe, 1500s |
‘French lilac’. Garden escape. Colourful component of wasteland,
railway embankments etc.. |
|
Ground-elder |
Aegopodium podagraria |
Europe, Roman times |
The infamous ‘gout-weed’ or ‘bishop’s-weed’, bane of many
gardeners. Introduced as a medicinal and pot herb. Useful source of food
for pollen-feeding beetles and other insects. |
|
Himalayan honeysuckle |
Leycesteria formosa |
Asia |
Grown in gardens for its handsome purple flowers and sweet scent. Can
be found in range of habitats including ancient woodland. |
|
Opium poppy |
Papaver somniferum |
Asia via Southern Europe |
Garden escape. Source of opium, morphine, codeine and heroin in warmer
parts of the world. |
|
Broad-leaved everlasting-pea |
Lathyrus latifolius |
S Europe |
Magenta flowers on railway embankments, roadsides and rough ground.
Probably bird-sown from gardens. |
|
Slender speedwell |
Veronica filiformis |
Turkey and the Caucasus 1800s |
Rock garden plant, first recorded wild in London as a weed of tennis
courts in Hounslow in 1942; now frequent on suburban lawns, roadside
verges, paths and churchyards. Tiny, blue flowers, seldom setting seed in
Britain. |
|
Tree of heaven |
Ailanthus altissima |
Northern China, 1751 |
Frequently planted and thriving in streets and parks of central London.
Bears attractive reddish brown keys shaped like those of the ash and sows
itself about quite freely around the city. |