I said that I
thought it was self-heal.
It's an interesting point you've made - relates to a lot of deep ecological thinking
One theory is that the greatest diversity of species is in habitats with intermediary levels of disturbance and/or stress.
i.e. you don't get many (or any) plants (insects
&c &c) at the extremely stressed sites (deserts [hot or cold]
&c) but in the stable, climax habitats (
e.g. forests of various kinds) there are
also not many species - go and count the numbers of species of plants in your local semi-natural woodland and compare it to what you find in gardens (cheating
), heathland, ancient meadows ...
By one calculation, the Australian scrublands are the most species diverse in the world .... others would be coastal dune systems (as you, Goosey, will know), maintained heathland, limestone grassland - partly disturbed but not enriched chemically.
One fortunate thing is that most of these places are useless for housing or agriculture .....
Quote:
Originally Posted by goosey
The plant in photo No.2 has been identified by Paul M as selfheal, Prunella vulgaris. Excellent, something else I have learned today  . |