100 Species Challenge: Bugle

Scientific name: Ajuga reptans
Family: Lamiaceae
Flowers: April to July

The Bugle Fairy

At the edge of the woodland
Where good fairies dwell,
Stands, on the look-out,
A brave sentinel.

At the call of his bugle
Out the elves run
Ready for anything,
Danger or fun,
Hunting or warfare,
By moonshine or sun.

With bluebells and campions
The woodlands are gay,
Where bronzy-leaved Bugle
Keeps watch night and day.
Cicely Mary Barker

You can find this Flower Fairy poem set to music here. A while ago I bought and reviewed the whole album, A Flower Fairy Alphabet. Cicely Mary Barker knew her stuff - I spotted this plant in the woods, and saw both bluebells and campions in flower on the same walk. In fact the bugle and red campion were within inches of each other.

Like selfheal, another member of the mint family, bugle is used in herbal medicine to stop bleeding.

100 Species Challenge Number 19
List of plants identified to date