Newsletter #179 The angular willowherb — who doesn’t know it!
Newsletter about nature and science
in dutch : Listen to the podcast
The angular willowherb — who doesn’t know it!
Anyone trying to remove weeds between the paving stones can sometimes face real dilemmas. Like with that beautiful, subtle plant, often around fifty centimeters tall, with narrow leaves resembling those of a willow and pointed pink flower buds that look promising even when still closed. Upon closer inspection, the plant turns out to be the angular willowherb (Epilobium tetragonum). Surprisingly, it belongs to the same family as the evening primrose and the often much larger hairy and common willowherbs. This weed is well worth a closer look, as becomes clear from the pocket guide Stoepplanten (Pavement Plants). In that guide, you’ll be amazed again and again—104 times, to be exact.
The name angular willowherb does require some explanation. The Dutch word “wederik” (willowherb) refers to a willow-like plant. But in many parts of the Netherlands, the large loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) also grows—a yellow-flowering summer plant with narrow leaves from the primrose family, once believed to have medicinal properties. Probably to avoid confusion, the name “bastard willowherb” was given to a genus of about two hundred plants in the evening primrose family. And the “angular” part of our plant’s name becomes clear as soon as you look at and feel the stem. The stem, which has two or four sharp ridges, cannot be easily compressed.
Our plant can be found on virtually every street in the city, often in dry and sunny spots, or against walls and in alleys. The plant is often slender and under thirty centimeters tall, but can also grow wide and up to a meter high. Once the plants have finished blooming in early autumn, silver-colored seed tufts emerge from the fruit.
Interestingly, the numbers of this “weed” in our country appear to have increased dramatically since the beginning of the last century. Yet it’s debatable whether that’s really true. Its distribution used to cover the entire country as well. What has dramatically increased is the number of documented grid squares. Yes, interest in weeds is fortunately on the rise. Groups of enthusiasts are organizing excursions focused on what has come to be called pavement plants. To spark more interest and share information, they write the names in chalk on the sidewalk. The aforementioned Stoepplanten pocket guide was created by a local group from Breda, in collaboration with the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. Each of the 104 entries is a fascinating story, from sidewalk grass to the common daisy—two examples of species that bloom all year round. We’ll definitely return to the topic of weeds again.
Five tips for learning more about pavement plants
Before you pull a weed out, take a photo with your phone and use the lens function to try identifying it.
Buy the Stoepplanten guide—an investment for life.
If that’s too much, at least look up background information online (e.g. floravannederland.nl or Wikipedia).
Check if there’s a pavement plant excursion near you (e.g. via IVN, KNNV, or a local working group).
Report your observations on waarneming.nl—this also allows you to check if the same species has been found nearby before.
We now have three publications:
Dutch podcast on wednesday
Nieuwsbrief NL → dutch newsletter
Newsletter ENG → same newsletter but in english
You can change what you will receive in your substack email from us in the bottom manage subscription or go to the link https://menno-en-erwin.substack.com/manage-subscription
Blijf op de hoogte!
Wil je meer weten over de geheimen achter ons drinkwater en andere fascinerende natuur- en wetenschapsonderwerpen? Abonneer je dan op onze podcast en Substack via mennoenerwin.nl, en mis geen aflevering meer. Direct naar de podcast ? Klik hier
je kan je subscripties wijzigen zodat je alleen de engelse of nederlandse newsbrief ontvangt hier https://menno-en-erwin.substack.com/manage-subscription
