Lady's-mantle
Latin name
Alchemilla spps
Family
Rosaceae
Flowering season
May to September
English distribution
The most common of the 13 native species, Alchemilla
filicaulis subsp. Vestita, Southern Lady’s-mantle, is
found mainly in the West and the North.
The most common naturalised species, A. Mollis,
Garden Lady’s -mantle, is found throughout the country,
except for parts of East Anglia and the Southeast.
See the BSBI distribution map for Lady's-mantle
Habitat
Southern Lady’s-mantle grows in grassy areas, such
as rough pasture, banks, open woodland, chalk downs,
hill-sides and beside roads.
Garden Lady’s-mantle is a neophyte, which has been
grown in gardens in the UK since the 1870s, but was
not recorded in the wild before the 1940s.
It spreads from garden throw-outs, rhizomes and seed
and has become widely naturalised in waste ground
and beside rivers and roads.
Description
Lady’s-mantle is a vigorous, low-growing perennial herb.
The flowers are in groups and are small (up to 3mm
across).
They are conspicuous because they are yellowy green
and well above the leaves.
The flowers are 4-merous with 2 rings of sepals, 4 stamens
but no petals.
The ovules and stigmas are bottle shaped.
The leaves are palmate, toothed and can be hairy.
They vary in size and in their shade of green.
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Lady's-mantle
Flower spikes
Sepal rings, stugma
Stamens
9-lobed leaf