The flora of PĂ©rigord in South-West France is abundant and diverse. In this blog you can find, in pictures, brief encounters with several hundreds of wild flowers and plants as they grow here in French Perigord. Following the seasons other species are added. An index of scientific and English names you find below on the right.

Corine Oosterlee is a botanist and photographer and she offers guided Botanical Walks and other activities around plants and vegetation in nature in Perigord. Do you want to know more? On www.baladebotanique.fr you can find more information. For Corine's photography see www.corineoosterlee.com. Both websites also in English.

Enjoy!




June 8, 2016

Yellow Vetch


In a flowering meadow grows this Yellow Vetch (Vicia lutea) in large amounts. In fact it is not yellow at all, its flowers are white. It has tendrils to climb sunwards in grasses and other plants.





You can see there are many insect visitors. Like many other vetches it has black spots on its stipules. Those spots contain a sugary substance attractive to insects, especially ants.






Also Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) are fond of Yellow Vetch. Many of them gather on it to meet a partner to mate.

Talking about nuptials, between the flower also hides a male Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) and he carries a parcel between its legs, his wedding present.






He is looking for a female to bring her a prey wrapped in silk. If he comes without a gift, she will eat him immediately without giving him time to make love to her. The present will keep her occupied while he couples with her, and with some luck he will get away with it !