Shepherd's Purse

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Thursday, 28th April 2005
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

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Shepherd's Purse

Greenhouse, 5.45 p.m., 20°C

Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, a common weed, is normally smaller than this plant, growing to 32 cm, over a foot tall, in the shelter of the greenhouse.

When I draw a subject like this I realise that I would enjoy immersing myself in botany. I like botanical details; they're subtle, often elegant, even in a weed like this, but they're there in front of you, there's nothing hidden or obscure about them (well, not until you get your hand lens out, then I guess there would be a lot more to it). I like:

  • the way the bases of the upper leaves clasp the stem

  • the heart-shaped seed-pods

  • the way the leaves of the basal rosette are different to the upper leaves; they have indented edges.

I could spend the spring and summer drawing wild flowers. I rushed this drawing a bit, I gave myself just half an hour, and, drawing from flowerhead to base, I struggled to make some of the ends of the leaves meet up with the previous leaves I'd drawn. If you look closely midway on the right, you'll see that I've had to extend the end of the large top leaf to bring it near enough (in line-of-sight terms) to a leaf that I subsequently drew in the basal rosette. I like to leave such mistakes as a part of the drawing, not blot them out with typewriter correcting fluid. Next Page

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk

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