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Water avens

 

 

A flower resembling a pretty bell – the water avens. The stem covered with  downy soft hairs, the bowed head and the tiny leaves lend the plant a delicate appearance. At a superficial glance the water avens might be confused with the pasqueflower, but the pasqueflower flowers earlier in Estonia and its habitats are dry and sandy.

 

In the water avens's flower we can distinguish a calyx made up of reddish-brown sepals and an only slightly longer corolla of petals in yellowish-red colours. Pollinators are bees, bumble bees, butterflies and many others, but older flowers manage self-pollination  too.

 

Habitats are moist areas: meadows with water in spring, river, lake or ditch banks. But how can the water avens grow in our home yard? In mid-summer when the water avens cease flowering their stems straighten up – it is the time to spread the seeds and it is certainly easier to succeed with a raised head. The seeds of the water avens have a sharp hook that easily catches in clothes or the fur of a pet animal on straying in a meadow. Thus coming along into a summer house or home garden is quite likely.