We took a walk in between the rain showers today and saw the Urban Outsiders exhibition being packed away. Hard to focus on much other than Ginkgo nuts at present (dreaming of them being swept away by the road cleaners before we can get to them!) But here are a few other plants from the park…
Lovely delicate yet wooly Marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis) still flowering here and there but mainly gone to seed. Such a useful soothing plant.
Thanks Dana for posting a lovely photo of this plant on Facebook recently. I didn’t know it so got hunting and found it is called Euonymus and is not edible.
It is pretty enough for restaurant Merkelbach to use in their table decorations today though. A nice escape from the rain – again!
Here is a taste of one of the best things to come in spring – Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Oh what a wonderful herb! I’m holding back from foraging any as the moment as these plants really need to build strength to get through the winter and then hopefully they will really flourish next year.
Urban Herbology 
That euonymus is commonly called the spindle tree because the wood is perfect for making spindles. We are growing one in our garden as it is a particularly beautiful colour in autumn and the flowers are quite lovely. We didn’t let our gingko’s get to the ground, we picked the ripe fruit directly from the tree before the council workers arrived with their pegs on their noses and stole it out from our questing fingers 😉
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