Rosebay Willowherb

The tall, pink flower spikes of Rosebay willowherb can often be seen crowding together in thick stands in open spaces, such as woodland clearings, roadside verges, grassland and waste ground. A successful coloniser, Rosebay Willowherb has grown in number from a scarce woodland plant to a ubiquitous flower. This expansion occurred as a result of two World Wars clearing huge areas of forest and burning the ground in both town and countryside - just the right conditions for this plant to thrive in. One of its common names in the south-east of England, 'Bombweed', alludes to this takeover as a result of air raids during the Second World War.

This shot was taken near the start of a walk onto Clifton Ings, York, with Katharine. She is slowly building up the distance that she can walk after her various ilnesses earlier in the year. Today we walked around 2 miles (3.2 kilometers), her longest walk this year, so her progress continues.

Ian

[Casablanca]

Fascinating piece of history, I never knew that! Well done to Katharine - 2 miles is fantastic progress when you consider where she has come from. I am hugely proud of her.

[gloria jones]

Pretty capture and interesting history

[Peter Dulis]

nice

[carol white]

A lovely capture and interesting info

[Margaret Brown]

We have hedgerows and wasteland full of these colourful plants, they are always so colourful whilst they are flowering.

[william wooderson]

You have really brightened up my evening!

[KoalaGardens🐨]

oh that's lovely

[Pat]

I am so pleased with your interesting info on this, thank you. I have often pondered over its name as it doesn't seem to match the flower. I'm going to call it bombweed from now on as it suits it much better now I know it's history.
A lovely capture.
A big cheer for Katharine too on her new milestone.

[Pyrrhula]

Great shot of this lovely flower. Fav.

[Babs]

Such a pretty wildflower. Glad to hear Katharine is making progress.

[Kathy A]

Such a pretty plant. Great to hear that Katharine is doing well.

[Sylvia du Toit]

Beautiful,

[Dione Giorgio]

Beautiful shot. Beautiful bunch of flowers on one stalk.

[Fisher Family]

@casablanca @seattlite @pdulis @carolmw @craftymeg @will_wooderson @koalagardens @pattyblue @pyrrhula @onewing @kjarn @sdutoit @sangwann

Thank you all for your lovely comments and fav, they are very much appreciated.

Thank you to all those of you who sent congratulations and encouragement to Katharine, she has progressed a long way since her last hospital admission and really enjoys her daily walk. More importantly she feels she is walking well within her capabilities, so longer walks should soon be possible.

Ian