Picture: rock rose. Click here for more June downland and seaside flower photos.
Downland flowers are at their best in the summer months and June sees the start of that. In the first two or three weeks it tends to be the smaller flowers that are out, so often they are not always obvious until you look a bit closer. But some species - such as buttercups, birdsfoot trefoil, horseshoe vetch and sainfoin - can make big displays, and in the second half the species count definitely increases.
All this depends on how much rain we have. The downs have porous chalk soils and while plants there are used to dry conditions, there are limits to their endurance. But in wetter - or even reasonably damp - summers, the downs can be positively ablaze with wildflowers by the last week of June.
Birdsfoot trefoil is one of the commonest flowers on downland in June. Its yellow flowers are usually already abundant early in the month and remain so until its end. While sometimes they form sizeable patches, more usually they are dotted about the hillside.
A superficially similar species is horseshoe vetch, which forms big carpets, sometimes covering whole hillsides. It tends to fade by the middle of June, however. In a few places you may see kidney vetch, particularly early in the month, though some can last into July.
Also yellow are the globe-like flowers of black medick (so named for its seeds rather than its flowers). At an even smaller scale are the white blooms of fairy flax on their wiry stalks and, towards the end of the month, the tiny pale pink or white clusters of squinancywort. Milkwort - usually with blue flowers but sometimes pink or white - tends to be in the first two thirds of the month.
Buttercups are quite common on grazed downland early in the month but get less profuse at its end. Two species are possible - bulbous buttercup being found earlier in the month, creeping buttercup throughout.
Both species are easy to confuse with rock rose and silverweed, two other yellow flowers of the same size and colour. On closer inspection the flowers of rock rose are different and they grow on tendrils with tiny leaves quite unlike buttercup ones.
Silverweed has very distinctive leaves with a metallic underside, but the flowers often seem to be grow a bit apart from them, so you do not always link the two. It is mostly found on path verges. On barer downland soils you may also find cinquefoil.
Germander speedwell may survive on downland into the early part of June, while just occasionally common vetch crops up at this time. You also may just see dovesfoot cranesbill and mouse ear.
Daisies persist throughout the month on paths and in closely grazed areas. Clover is also seen - usually white clover, as red clover is not so keen on chalky soils (though some red clover does not seem to know this).
Salad burnet is quite a common downland plant, in early June at least, but it is very hard to tell when this plant is actually in flower: when it is, it has a reddish frizz on top and yellow tassels hanging down, but often it looks as if it is either about to come out or just gone over.
Yellow rattle continues to flower. Its timing is rather variable: some can be over by mid month, but it can crop up right to the end of the month. Once over, its brown pods with seeds rattling in them give it its name.
(Don't confuse these with the pods of cowslip, which have by now gone over. but are still quite visible on the downs, at least in the first half: cowslip pods are in a cluster at the end of the stalk, while yellow rattle ones are spread up the stalk).
Yellow-green crosswort can survive into the first half of June in quite large colonies. Houndstongue, whose purple flowers look as if they are only part out, may also still be in bloom at this time.
Throughout the month you occasionally see spikes of mignonette, and even more occasionally the similar but taller weld. Oxeye daisies may survive until late in June in places and are quite numerous on some downland slopes, though only in small patches on others.
Bladder campion also seems to be particularly at home on downland, and this is perhaps the best month for it. Very occasionally you also see white campion. The pretty pink-flowered hoary plantain crops up now and then, and you also see its more common cousin ribwort plantain at times. An unconventional grass seen on downland is quaking grass, its seeds turning brown in the early part of the month.
Sainfoin is is a member of the pea family that produces large numbers of dramatic pink flower spikes in a few places - try the cliffs between Kingsdown, St Margaret's Bay and South Foreland, Fackenden Down near Otford, the sea-facing slopes of Beachy Head, or Magdalen Down near Winchester. It is at its best in the first half of the month.
Viper's bugloss is more normally found on downland in coastal areas but sometimes appears inland (particularly, for some reason, on Box Hill). It starts as a small blue flower, but grows into huge spikes, which are very drought resistant.
June is the best month to see orchids on the downs, including common spotted orchid (its name refers to its spotted flowers and stems, though it is the most commonly seen orchid too), fragrant orchid, the green flowered twayblade (named for the large double leaf at its base), man orchid and bee orchid.
All of these are dependent on there being enough rain (2022 and 2023 were bad years due to drought), and all are likely to be going over at the end of the month, though pyramidal orchid is just getting into its stride at this time and is at its best in early July.
Rarer orchids you can see in particular places include fly and spider orchids, while burnt tip orchids can be found in the valley next to Mount Caburn near Lewes. Hartslock Hill, between Goring and Pangbourne, is home to both lady orchids and a rare hybrid between it and the monkey orchid, while a small section of downland in Homefield Wood near Marlow is one of three UK sites for the military orchid. Photos of these and other orchids are on this page.
If you see a dandelion-like flower on downland it is very likely to be a rough hawkbit (very widespread and common), though mouse-ear hawkweed, distinguishable by its rounded basal leaves, which are hidden away in the turf, and its neat yellow flowers, is also found with reasonable frequency.
As the month goes on lesser hawkbit (square ended petals of uneven length with a grey-purple tints to their underside) appears in short turf, along with smooth hawksbeard (looking like a hawkbit only with branched stems: a stunted form of it often grows on downland, however, which looks very similar to lesser hawkbit).
Just to confuse matters, you very occasionally also see catsear on downs (also with branched stems, though bigger flowers than smooth hawksbeard), or rough hawksbeard (much taller and showier then all others mentioned so far: despite its name, a totally different plant from smooth hawksbeard). Very occasionally you also get hawkweeds - a confusing family of species, usually single-stemmed, sometimes with lots of leaves on the stem and sometimes not.
In the second half of June a new wave of downland flowers appear, including the pretty purple tubes of self-heal, the tiny white flowers of eyebright, the pink stars of common centaury, and the similarly-coloured restharrow - so named because it used to impede agricultural implements.
Wild thyme (not particularly aromatic) can be found in small quantities right from the start of the month, but in the second half starts to make larger purple mats on shorter turf. You can also find the much more aromatic leaves of wild marjoram growing right from the start of the month, but it doesn't flower until July.
Building as the month goes on and usually at its best at the month's end, when it can dominate large swathes of downland, is white hedge bedstraw. Pretty yellow lady's bedstraw follows, usually not starting till the last ten days of the month, and fairly tentative even then.
The second half is also the time to see the yellow-flowered St John's wort - again quite dominant in places - and the much more unobtrusive field bindweed.
Stranger downland flowers in the second half include yellow-wort, with large waxy leaves straddling its stem: its flowers only open in sunlight and even then not often, it seems. Dropwort, meanwhile, is a kind of downland meadowsweet, with a white frizz of flowers.
The second half is also the time to see robin's pin cushion - a gall on wild rose bushes that looks like a bright red cluster of threads, which for some reason favours (or maybe is more noticeable on) short rose shoots on downland.
Thistles grow on downland too, including musk thistle with its large nodding heads, welted thistle and (surprisingly) marsh thistle: all of these might be flowering in the early part of June but are more normal in the second half.
Meanwhile slender thistle, which is usually found near the sea, is at its best in the first two thirds of the month. More common than all of these are creeping thistle and spear thistle, which may start to flower by the month's end.
There is also a dwarf thistle specific to downland, whose leaves often make their presence felt when you sit down on short turf to have your sandwiches. In theory it can start flowering at the end of June, with spear thistle-like blooms growing directly out of the basal leaves with no intervening stem. However, mid July onwards seems a more normal time to see this.
A plant with a thistle-like flower that starts to appear in the last ten days of the month (with occasional flowers sometimes seen earlier) is knapweed. At the same time you can also find the pin-cushion flowers of field scabious, the striking orange-yellow common ragwort, the delicate yellow spikes of agrimony, and wild carrot, which can be easily distinguished from other umbellifers by its large forked bracts. All these go on to be summer staples and can dominate large areas of downland in July.
Some wood sage may also crop up, probably budding at this stage rather than in flower, and very occasionally you see some vervain. At the very end of the month you may just see hedge parsley or a few very tentative clustered bellflowers.
Other flowers more normally associated with lowland grassland and verges that may just be seen in longer grass on downland include lesser stitchwort, common sorrel, ribbed melilot and tufted vetch. Also goatsbeard, its large seed heads being more conspicuous than its flowers, which only open up in the early morning.
Rosebay willowherb forms large patches in places on the downs and is starting to come out in force at the end of the month, while hogweed and yarrow can also be seen in places. Common valerian - usually a marsh plant - is found in quantity on the downland slopes of Bacombe Hill near Wendover towards the end of the month, and dark mullein also flowers in great profusion in the same place at the same time.
By the sea
On shingle beaches the best floral displays are earlier in the month, though some plants are at their best towards its end. Good places to see them are in Shoreham-by-Sea, Cuckmere Haven, between Newhaven and Seaford, and on the seafront between Sandgate and Folkestone.
Perhaps the best display of all is between Walmer and Kingsdown, near Deal. This section of beach is alive in early June with oxeye daisies, red and white valerian (actually colour variants of the same species), viper's bugloss, red hot pokers (a garden escapee), the leaves (though not yet the flowers) of fennel, and rosy (or occasionally crow) garlic.
The grey leaves of silver ragwort can also be seen, though it does not flower until the second half. The red hot pokers, garlic and oxeye daisies are a special feature of this location: the other species are common on other south eastern beaches.
Other shingle specialists include tree mallow, a shrub as much as a flower, which is distinguishable from common mallow by the dark purple centres to its flowers. It is at its best in early June and has mostly gone over by the end of the month.
Note also the striking yellow-horned poppy, which can flower at any time in June but has its biggest concentration of flowers early to mid month. Later in the month it produces seeds up to 30 centimetres long, the longest of any UK plant.
The white flowers of sea kale (eg on Bishopstone or Shoreham beach) are mostly over by now - May is the best time for them - but you may see a few in the early part of June. Once they are over, the plant is covered in masses of green berries
Rarer shingle specialists include sea pea which forms mats (for example on Deal beach and at Dungeness) and then produces dramatic purple-blue flowers mid month; also sea sandwort (again, found on Deal beach), which has white flowers on clumps of rubbery leaves early in the month and green globular fruits later.
In the second half of the month, patches of sea heath (its tiny pink flowers having square ends to their petals) can be seen on the Seaford seafront and on the cliffs at Rottingdean on the edge of Brighton. Another rarity, seen on Walmer beach, is narrow-leaved ragwort, with yellow and gold flowers like common ragwort but with thin thread-like leaves.
More mundane plants of the seaside include sea beet, whose green flower spikes are evident all month, though you need to look very closely to see when the pods on the spikes actually open and put forth tiny yellow flowers, probably later in the month. This untidy-looking plant is apparently edible, the ancestor of sugar beet, spinach, beetroot and chard.
You can also see the leaves of sea mayweed - looking much like inland mayweeds but more rubbery to the touch - and at the very end of the month it may just be flowering, though more normally this happens in July. Buckshorn plantain is mainly over but sometimes flowers very inconspicuously.
Later in the month you start to see mats of orache leaves forming on shingle beaches. This usually seems to be spear-leaved orache, though the related Babington's orache, which is a seashore specialist, is also possible. Spear-leaved orache can also be found as a more erect plant at the top of beaches. In all cases, the inconspicuous flowers do not appear until July.
Drought-resistant plants that can establish themselves on the more compacted parts of shingle beaches include catsear, mouse-ear hawkweed and beaked hawksbeard, all of which have dandelion-like flowers. The same is true of bristly oxtongue, which is more of a coastal specialist, though also found inland. You also can see prostrate patches of bittersweet (aka woody nightshade).
Other plants I have seen on the landward edge of shingle beaches in June include common mallow, Oxford ragwort, poppy, scarlet pimpernel, birdsfoot trefoil, purple toadflax, black mustard, bastard cabbage, hedge mustard, ribwort plantain and weld. Slender thistle grows both on shingle and cliff tops near the sea, and is at its best in the first two thirds of the month.
You can find asters (garden escapees rather than the true wild sea aster, which has smaller flowers and does not come out till August) and the showy pink flowers of rubbery hottentot figs growing on some south-facing slopes near the sea. (The eastern end of the Sunny Sands beach in Folkestone is a good place to see the latter). Snow-in-summer is another garden plant that occasionally escapes onto the top of shingle beaches or cliff tops (try the cliffs above Folkestone Warren).
The salt-tolerant hoary cress is mainly in flower early in the month, though sometimes later, cropping up at the head of beaches or on coastal wasteground: it is also found inland by roads salted in winter. Alexanders, a green-flowered umbellifer, has gone over by now, but its seedheads (green at this time of year) are a very common sight by the sea in June.
A very inconspicuous seaside plant is the oddly named pellitory-of-the-wall. As its name suggests, it can be seen on harbour walls (as at Folkestone), sea walls (St Margaret's Bay) or in odd corners on seafront esplanades. It has rather unnoticeable reddish flowers.
By the end of the month sea purslane in salt marshes (and other odd corners by the sea) may be putting forward its little-noticed brown flower buds. On cliff faces, as well as the sea heath mentioned above, you get the plants of rock samphire and rock sea-lavender, and the latter might be flowering by the end of the month, as might the almost identical salt marsh-dwelling sea lavender.
Stony ground by the sea also provides nice environments for stonecrops – for example the pink-tinged English stonecrop (see the shingle area behind Newhaven beach), the yellow biting stonecrop, or white stonecrop, which grows on slightly taller stalks. All of these tend to flower towards the end of the month, though sometimes earlier: the availability of moisture may be a factor. Their rubbery foliage can also be red or green depending on how much water they get.
On the cliff tops near Dover, as well as along the seafront of Folkestone Warren, you get wild cabbage - allegedly brought there by the Romans. Its yellow flowers are common in these locations early in the month, fading in the second half. Sea radish, with flowers of the same colour, is also found in various locations near the sea, for example on the sea-facing slopes of Beachy Head.
Black mustard and bastard cabbage are other similar plants that grow on cliff tops (for example, above Folkestone Warren). Ribbed melilot grows in abundance on the seafront of Folkestone Warren.
On wilder grassy cliff tops you can sometimes see thrift (for example on Seaford Head or near Hastings) and kidney vetch (eg on the cliffs at Kingsdown and South Foreland, or the sea slopes of Folkestone Warren). Both also occur on shingle, which is where you are most likely to see sea campion in this part of the world, though in the West Country it too grows on cliff tops. All three are at best early in the month but can be found later.
Mignonette is also sometimes found on cliff tops (for example either side of Birling Gap) and in the second half of June (or sometimes earlier) you see wild carrot – a low umbellifer easily identifiable by the large forked bracts (tassels) beneath its flowers, and by the way its flower head starts as a dome, becomes flat and then curls up when it goes over. It is also found inland but is commonest on coasts, eg on Seaford Head, where it grows in great profusion.
Viper's bugloss (mentioned above as a shingle flower) is another common plant of coastal downland. Early in the month on the cliff tops above Folkestone Warren and at South Foreland near Dover, and also on the shingle at Dungeness, lots of Nottingham catchfly grows, its white flowers rolled up by day and only opening in the late afternoon.
A common shrub in seaside resort gardens and on seafronts is tamarisk. It has pale pink flower tassels, though it can also look as if it is in flower even when it is just budding. Flowering times are variable, but it is usually at its best in the second half of June.
You may just see the yellow flowers of our native broom by the sea in the first half, but more likely towards the end of the month is the showier Spanish broom, which is found in a few places, most notably the south western end of the Eastbourne seafront.
In various south coast locations you may see the oddly-named Duke of Argyll's tea plant, a shrub that puts out little purple flowers later in the month, while on Walmer Beach holm oak flourishes, its flower tassels fading as the month goes on.
More June pages:
- Meadow and field flowers
- Wayside flowers
- Hedgerow, trees and berries
- Birds
- Butterflies and insects
- Weather
© Peter Conway 2006-2024 • All Rights Reserved
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