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Friends of Rising Sun Country Park, Rising Sun Country Park, Countryside Centre, Whitley Road, Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne (2026)

23/08/2026

‘Walls may not seem the most hospitable of environments, but the plants that survive there can be surprising’. This week’s challenge is all about flowering wall plants, so we’ve focused on the few walls we actually have on site.🌼🧱

The former hospital buildings in the Countryside Centre don’t offer much in the way of flowering species, but the old brick walls 🧱 and lime mortar support wall‑rue and maidenhair spleenwort sitting tight in the joints 🌿. Lime mortar stays slightly porous and holds a bit of moisture, which is why these masonry specialists persist here.

As these aren’t part of the flowering brief, we headed over to Rising Sun Farm and the sandstone wall around the livery yard. This wall has been repointed in places, and modern cement pointing changes the wall habitat - harder, less porous, and no longer offering the same conditions that support true wall plants. Even so, several areas along the wall have cracks where the repointing has dislodged, leaving gaps - some small, some quite large - that catch blown soil and run‑off 🪨. These are the spots that support the opportunists we spotted this afternoon: common daisy , smooth sow‑thistle , field forget‑me‑not , common nettle , herb‑Robert finished flowering and already set seed , and one of the small willowherbs 🌼🌱🌸.

True wall plants such as wall‑rue, maidenhair spleenwort and species such as ivy-leaved toadflax anchor directly into the mortar rather than relying on blown soil - a clear contrast with the opportunists using the dislodged gaps on the farm wall.

Two walls, two very different conditions: lime mortar still holding its specialist ferns 🌿, and repointed sandstone offering gaps 🪨 for opportunistic plants 🌱 that simply make use of whatever spaces are left.

Sundays 8–9pm

19/08/2026

🌸It was nice to see vervain (Verbena officinalis) popping up again on the drier, scrubby edge of the wet wildflower meadow in Plantation Wood last weekend. It’s not a common wildflower at Rising Sun, so it was good to see it holding its place despite the competition from the surrounding vegetation. 🌱

Vervain is not native to the UK; it’s considered an archaeophyte, thought to have arrived here in the Neolithic period.

Quite a delicate‑looking plant, it has green square stems, narrow lobed leaves, and long, wand‑like spikes carrying small pale lilac flowers. 🌿 These run from mid‑summer into early autumn and are used by common carder bees, smaller hoverflies and a few small late‑flying moths. 🐝🦋

Rich in folklore, vervain has been treated for centuries as a plant of peace, protection and ritual use. Older Egyptian stories link it with Isis, with some traditions saying the plant arose from her tears for Osiris. Roman writers describe priests using it in purification rites and in ceremonies linked with negotiation and calming; the classical name Verbena was used for altar‑plants in general. 🏛️ Druids regarded it as one of their most sacred herbs, using it to bless water and mark out ritual space. Later Christian belief names it the Herb of the Cross, said to have grown at the site of the crucifixion and used to staunch Christ’s wounds. ✝️ English charm‑lists give the protective line -“Vervain and Dill, hinder witches from their will” - showing how this slight plant was used to keep harm at bay. 🔮

Older herbals describe vervain as a general tonic plant, used for mild fevers, digestive upsets and headaches, and applied externally for small wounds and bruises. 🌸 It was widely cultivated in medieval gardens and became an official apothecaries’ herb in the sixteenth century, listed for a broad range of complaints. 🧺 Modern clinical use is limited; it appears mainly in herbal preparations and traditional systems such as Chinese medicine, often included in night‑time tea blends for its calming associations. 🫖
🌼

16/08/2026

For this week’s challenge🌸 we’re looking for wild or naturalised blooms with quirky common names. Around the Rising Sun Country Park, the plant with one of the richest collections of quirky common names is a small pink geranium from the cranesbill family. Found growing along path edges and hedge bottoms from spring to late summer, with red‑tinged stems and a pungent, easily recognised scent. Many names come straight from those traits: Stinking Bob from the musky smell, Death‑come‑quickly from the same sharp scent, Red Robin and Bloodwort for the red stems, and Crow’s‑foot for the divided leaves. Hedgerow folklore adds more 🌸 - Robin‑run‑in‑the‑hedge, Poor Robin and Robert‑of‑the‑hedge, and then the dialect names Nancy‑dancy from the south‑west and Squinter‑pip from Cumbrian dialect, possibly the quirkiest of the lot.

In 1958, Geoffrey Grigson 📚 recorded 111 English regional and folk names for this plant in The Englishman’s Flora - one of the largest name‑banks of any British wildflower 🌸.

The name most people recognise today is Herb‑Robert. The plant’s Latin name is Geranium robertianum. The long beak‑shaped seed pods give the genus its name: Geranium from Greek geranos, “crane”. The robertianum part may link to St Robert in older herbals or to rubor, Latin for red.

Herb‑Robert is a reliable food source for many invertebrates - bees 🐝, hoverflies 🪰 and the Barred Carpet moth 🦋. It’s easy to find around the park - a small, bright wildflower with a long run of quirky names. Perfect for this challenge 🌸.

Sundays 8–9pm

12/08/2026

Ragwort – love it or loathe it? Misaligned or menace?
Common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) 🌼 is holding its ground around the park in this dry spell 🌾, still pushing out fresh flower heads while many other plants have faded back in the drought. Right now it’s one of the few reliable nectar sources left standing.

Around 120 invertebrate species use ragwort, with roughly 30 tied to it completely - beetles 🪲, flies, micro‑moths and the cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) 🐛. Butterflies 🦋, bees 🐝, wasps and nocturnal moths all work the flower heads well into late summer and autumn.

The tension comes with grazing. Ragwort contains alkaloids toxic to horses and livestock 🐴. While growing, most horses avoid it because of its bitter taste; once cut, wilted or dried in hay it loses that bitterness but stays highly toxic. The toxins build up slowly and cause irreversible liver damage. Under the Weeds Act 1959 and Ragwort Control Act 2003, authorities can require
control - ONLY where there’s a risk to grazing ⚠️
The risk is reduced by keeping ragwort out of grazed fields and hay meadows 🌱, avoiding over‑grazing, buying hay from reputable sources, and removing plants before they set seed.

As summers become hotter and drier ☀️, ragwort’s ability to keep flowering when other plants have dropped back may prove critical as one of the species that will help an ecosystem hold on rather than tip into collapse. With the UK now one of the most nature‑depleted countries in the world and species abundance down around 19% since 1970 📉, every reliable nectar source matters.

Ragwort is a high‑value wildlife plant that becomes a problem ONLY when grazing or hay are at risk.

05/08/2026

🌼 Last week we showcased purple loosestrife, so this week’s stays with the theme and looks at dotted loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata), sometimes known as large yellow loosestrife.

💧 We initially thought this plant was the native yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) because it was growing on the margins of Hadrian Pond, a habitat strongly associated with that species. A closer look, however, revealed it to be dotted loosestrife.

🔍 The two species are very similar, but there are a few simple ways to tell them apart. Dotted loosestrife has flowers growing from the leaf joints all the way up the stem, giving it a dense, upright appearance. Yellow loosestrife carries most of its flowers in clusters towards the top of the stem.

🌿 The flowers provide more clues. Yellow loosestrife has sepals edged with orange, while those of dotted loosestrife are plain green. Dotted loosestrife also often has a distinctive orange-red centre to each flower, whereas yellow loosestrife tends to be a more uniform yellow.

🌾 Habitat can help too. Yellow loosestrife is most often found in wetlands such as marshes, ditches, pond margins and fens, while dotted loosestrife is more commonly associated with gardens, roadsides and rough grassland.

🌍 Both belong to the primrose family (Primulaceae). Yellow loosestrife is native to the UK, while dotted loosestrife was introduced from south-east Europe, probably as a garden plant, and has since become widely naturalised.

🐂 The name loosestrife has an interesting folklore connection. It is said to mean “to loosen strife”, reflecting an old belief that these plants could calm quarrels and soothe agitated animals. Legend says that Lysimachus, a general and successor of Alexander the Great, used the plant to pacify a raging ox, inspiring both the scientific name Lysimachia and its reputation as a peacemaker.

🌸 Interestingly, purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is not closely related to either species. Despite sharing the same common name, it belongs to the entirely different Lythraceae family!

🌼🍃💛

02/08/2026

This week’s theme is , which is quite a challenge for an inland country park and one that needed a bit of creativity! 🌊 A few coastal-leaning plants do turn up inland, but with no time to check the whole site, I photographed a familiar Rising Sun bloom whilst visiting Whitley Bay: knapweed, with the sea and beach behind it instead of its more usual grassland setting. 🌿💜

To keep the park in the challenge, I’ve also included Rosa rugosa, sometimes called Beach rose. 🌹 It’s originally native to northeast Asia, where it grows on coastal dunes and scrub, which is why it fits the theme even though it has been widely planted in the UK. It’s a bloom we covered recently for , but as it’s still flowering around the park, it earns its place here as a coastal-leaning plant that has also become part of our regular summer country park landscape. 🌿🌹
Sunday's 8-9pm

01/08/2026

☀️Today is 1 August, the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox 🌾. It is marked by the festivals of Lughnasadh in the Gaelic world and Lammas in England, both long‑standing seasonal customs shaped by the farming year.

Lughnasadh takes its name from the Irish god Lugh. The festival is linked with honouring his foster‑mother Tailtiu, said to have died after clearing land for crops. Early gatherings were held on hilltops and other meeting places, marking the start of harvest with simple offerings and games 🌱.

Lammas, the Anglo‑Saxon “loaf‑mass,” involved baking a loaf from the first wheat, taking it to church to be blessed, then dividing it into four pieces for the barn corners 🍞. It marked and protected the new grain at the place it would be stored.

Modern pagans often use the words Lughnasadh and Lammas interchangeably, but historically they come from different roots.

Today, in a largely secular society, the date is mostly noted through small seasonal signs - first grain coming in, hedgerow fruit ripening 🍎, and the shift from high summer towards August. The season is beginning its long slide into autumn and the first hint of shorter evenings.

31/07/2026

Have you seen the BBC's latest article on how AI-powered identification apps are transforming the way we connect with nature? They're making it easier than ever for people to put a name to the wildflowers, birds and insects they encounter while out exploring. https://ow.ly/fQpU50ZuLfw

If you're wondering where to start, these are our three favourite free apps:

🌱 ObsIdentify – Excellent for quickly identifying wild plants, fungi, insects and all manner of wildlife (and right surprisingly often!)

🌼 PlantNet – One of the most accurate apps for wild plants, especially if you photograph different parts of the plant such as the flowers, leaves and fruits.

🍃 Flora Incognita – A brilliant choice for identifying wildflowers and grasses, with detailed species accounts and an impressive success rate.

No app is perfect, of course. We always recommend treating identifications as a starting point rather than the final answer, especially for rare or tricky species. They're a great way to learn, build confidence and encourage more people to record the wildlife they encounter.

Have you tried any of these apps? Which one has become your favourite?

Friends of Rising Sun Country Park

23/08/2026

19/08/2026

16/08/2026

12/08/2026

05/08/2026

02/08/2026

01/08/2026

31/07/2026

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