Light Colour Shade: Wildflowers. Flowering Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), Teasel (Dipsacus), Moth Plant (Araujia cericifera), Carpobrotus, Ulex and Australian Hollyhock Summer Colours: pink, Yellow, Lilac and White

12 September 2012

Wildflowers. Flowering Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), Teasel (Dipsacus), Moth Plant (Araujia cericifera), Carpobrotus, Ulex and Australian Hollyhock
Summer Colours: pink, Yellow, Lilac and White

Let your garden overgrow and a lot of beautiful wildflowers will pop up, especially if you avoid cutting the grass with a lawnmower and use a scythe instead — not only an excellent workout, but also a way to cut down on petrol consumption.

Bramble or blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) belongs to the rosaceous family, genus Rubus. It has thorny stems and black or purple glossy edible berry-like fruits (drupelets). There are lots of wild blackberry bushes growing near my house, but they are so prickly that it's quite a pain to gather them.

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) flowers
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Verbascum blattaria, or moth mullein, is a species of flowering biennial weed belonging to the Scrophulariacea (Figwort) family. Native to Eurasia and North Africa, it's sometimes considered an invasive species.
Moth Mullein is an especially pretty wildflower, with white or yellow blossoms on a tall stalk and fuzzy purple stamens.

Moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria)
(© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Flowering teasel, or teazel or teazle (Dipsacus)
(© 2012 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

Araujia sericifera is a perennial ornamental plant in the genus Araujia belonging to Apocynaceae family. Its common names include Moth Plant, White Bladderflower, Common Moth Vine and Cruel Vine.This plant native to South America was introduced in Europe and in many other countries as an ornamental plant for its beautiful and sweet smelling flowers, but it is now considered a noxious weed. The fast-growing vines compete with trees for light, water, and nutrients thus damaging trees by this competition and by twining so tightly around their branches that it girdles them.

Moth plant (Araujia cericifera) flowers. (by-nc-nd)

Carpobrotus chilensis is a species of succulent plant known by the common name sea fig. It is probably native to southern Africa
Sea fig has long stems and fleshy, pointed leaves which are triangular in cross-section.
Carpobrotus has a lot of medicinal properties: juice from its leaves can be used as a mild astringent. When mixed with water the juice can be used to treat diarrhea, dysentery and stomach cramps. It can also be used as a gargle for sore throat and laryngitis, and mild bacterial infections of the mouth. The leaf juice can also be used externally, much like Aloe Vera for burns, abrasions, open cuts, grazes, mosquito bites and sunburn. It is also used to treat ringworm, eczema, dermatitis, herpes, thrush, cold sores, cracked lips, chafing, skin conditions and allergies.
An ancient remedy for constipation is to eat the fruit with brackish water or take syrup made from the fruit. A mixture of leaf juice, honey and olive oil in water is an old remedy for TB.

Red-lined gorse (ulex europaeus) flowers

Malva preissiana (Australian Hollyhock or Native Hollyhock) is a herbaceous perennial in the family Malvaceae, found in the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and to a greater extent in South Australia.