Acting on information received (thanks, M!), I went along a stretch of the cycle path alongside the Cambridge busway today to photograph a (relatively) rare plant now in flower. Rather than (as in my former life) concentrating on pedalling along this well-used route, I was walking and looking at the bone-dry gravel strip – in places less than a foot wide – between the edge of the tarmac and the various bits of fencing and boarding separating the path from the buildings beyond, and was surprised at the enormous diversity of the plants thriving in this apparently inhospitable terrain. I photographed only those in flower and that I could (tentatively) identify: there are dozens of others, many of which must have colonised (or recolonised) this unpromising ribbon of dirt in the barely four years since the busway was opened in August 2011. Definitely a case of right plant, right place! (I found and photographed the special plant, but its secret is safe with me…)

Caroline

Daisies

White campion

Bramble (and bees)

Mallow

Mignonette, grasses and convolvulus

Hawkbit

Lesser trefoil

Hemlock and knapweed

Rose in bud

Ox-eyed daisies and poppy

Ragwort

White valerian

Hemlock seed heads