Plant Recording in Coole Park

On Saturday 10th August I went plant recording in Coole park with lecturer Micheline Sheehy Skeffington and some of her students.
On our arrival, we were met by one of the workers there who lead us to specific interesting plants

Helleborine - Epipactis helleborine

And some others, but we kept stopping along the way to record other plants - like this red Valerian which was growing on the wall.

Red valerian - Centranthus ruber

This is not the real valerian, however, as I learned. But we did find that later on:

Valerian - Valeriana officinalis

Later on we found a large supply of Dewberries - like a delicious version of blackberries - it's true that blackberries are delicious too but these are milder  in acidity and more juicy. Basically, you can eat more of them - besides they look lovely and were plentyful.

Dewberry - Rubus caesius

 Here's a treasure I learned about and tried - water pepper. Like the name suggests it is quite spicy - I wonder if the the spicyness would last in cooking...

Water Pepper - Persicaria hydropiper

 Finally, not so much on the edible menu unlike the previous few (Helleborine and Red Valerian are NOT edible), we have this interesting shrub: Purging buckthorn

Purging Buckthorn - Rhamnus cathartica

These are just a few of the plants we found, recorded and learned about. But mostly these are the ones I took a photo of. I took many more of the next trip - to Towen Island.