Guttation

The grapevine leaves in our garden, yesterday morning, had droplets of water around their margins, yet were perfectly dry in the middle.  I'm pretty sure this is an example of 'Guttation'. 

  Over night, most plants close their stomata (pores) which prevents transpiration; so, when there is high humidity or a lot of moisture in the soil, we get 'root pressure'.  Water is then forced out through 'hydathodes' (a secretory structure - either glandular hairs or water pores) which are usually found at vein endings.

  Sometimes the water droplets contain calcium salts, which leave a white crust behind (not evident here).  This is not to be confused with 'dew'.  Dew is moisture condensed from the atmosphere onto the plant surface - in guttation, the water comes from within the plant. 

Bluebells

According to the Natural History Museum website, the bluebells in my garden are not native.  One way to tell is to look at the pollen; it's only native if the pollen is creamy white, and you can see here that the pollen on my bluebells is blue.

Still, they are pretty.  Next year, however, I must get into the local woods with my camera and capture the great sweeps of native blue that transform our woodlands in April and May.

Greater Stitchwort

I love these little flowers, and luckily, a corner of our garden is bursting with them.  At first glance they appear to have ten petals in pairs, but a closer look shows that, in fact there are only five, each one split down the centre.

I read that these delicate beauties have fine hairs on only one side of the stem.  And, apparently, you can eat the flowers, so I might try one on my salad at lunchtime; although, it seems a shame to eat something so pretty.