Ox-eye Daisies

You can’t travel far down a motorway in early summer without noticing drifts of ox-eye daisies Leucanthemum vulgare growing along the embankments, although the threat of being squashed by HGVs mean that you daren’t take your eyes off the road to admire them for more than a second. The daisies seem to dominate every wild flower mix that’s used to re-seed the bare soil after the road builders leave, but I think this magnificent display must have seeded themselves. We came across them at the weekend, growing beside a trunk route from an age when heavy goods vehicles moved at a slower pace - pulled by a horse in a barge - alongside the Chesterfield Canal in Derbyshire. Botanising along canal towpaths is a delightful way to send a summer day...