#lesser burdock

As its name would suggest, burdock forms large burrs in the fall, which attach to animals and birds to aid seed dispersal. Sometimes, this can even entrap and harm smaller animals, unfortunately, and the burrs can hurt even a larger animal that’s unable to remove them from their fur. There are a few good things about the burrs, though. For one, they inspired George de Mestral of Switzerland to create Velcro after seeing them get stuck on his dog! Plus, without burrs, we wouldn’t have the Burryman festival in Edinburgh, where a man gets entirely covered in burrs and paraded seven miles through South Queensferry while getting absolutely smashed on whiskey he’s offered along the way. 

View and Gatekeeper on lesser burdock at Pennington at the Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve 18/07/2026. It was also amazing to see the Pectoral Sandpiper on Keyhaven lagoon, thanks to a kind person we got speaking to who re-picked out the bird for us we got some astonishing views of this gorgeous wader, one of a few smashing wader species I've seen lately and this year. We don't see them every year last seeing one in 2022 and it's only the fifth we've ever seen. It was also great to see Common Scoter, Swallow, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Emperor dragonfly and sea lavender and golden samphire.

My current round of plants. I finally worked out how long to cold stratify burdock 🎉

I have a good amount of burdock root saved already, I'll probably try that next

A big one

I was gonna wait until friday, but look! These 3 burdock sprouted (right-side up) in the same pod at the same time 💚💚💚