Bugle

Name: Bugle

Scientific name: Ajuga reptans

Category: Flowers

Nature Stars: 40

What are nature stars?

About: This plant likes damp and fertile soils and can be found in woodland clearings, scrub and grassland. It flowers between May and July.

How to identify: Low growing, larger leaves spread out at its base and then grow up its flower spike. Small purple flowers sprout in between. They are shaped like skirted dollies, often with faint stripes running down them and with protruding stamen poking out over the top.

Where: Very common, grows all over the UK and Ireland

Fantastic fact: A closely related species, the pyramidal bugle, is slightly more dense in build and has darker leaves with an almost reddish-purple tinge.

Photograph credit: Philip Precey