Floral Images

This website shows a collection of images of flowers I have built up over the last ten years. The focus is now primarily on the wild flowers of Northern Europe but some cultivated varieties are also featured.

I have come to this via an interest in cultivation and wild flowers together with photography and am not a botanist ! In fact, the more I do of this the more amazed I am at the wealth of knowledge in the various guides and printed florae. I struggle to identify many plants / flowers (although I think I am improving) and there must be many blunders on this site - please be patient and, if you have the time, let me know when you find one. If my lack of botanical expertise offends you - then keep away.

Latin names - why ?
Apart from setting myself up for a fall - by getting them wrong, it has to be said their uniqueness is invaluable - for web searching and for using foreign books and other sources. I have endeavoured to include any common names I can, particularly those quoted by the BSBI, and those are indexed as well.

There are of course many more comprehensive and better researched websites with better photographs than this one (many not in English) - some I have found are listed on my links page.

I have listed the sources I use but, as ever the faults on this website are entirely my responsibility.

Indexing
FloralImages has quite a large collection of flower pictures - and it is growing. I have therefore tried to arrange useful indexes. Indexes by Latin and Common names should be self-explanatory. Just be aware that you can "short-cut" to the start letter with the links at the top of the page.
The family index is arranged in alphabetical order of Latin family names (with Latin species names under each family). English family names are also given and should be findable using the site search.
The "Native species" index is designed to cut out the garden cultivars featured on the site and "escapes" found in the wild; which I do photograph as many are common and well-liked.

Native or introduced status
The plants / flowers are now classified as Native, Neophyte, Archeophyte or Casual Alien. Many have no accepted status. The allocations of plants to these categories should not be taken as definitive because it is quite difficult to determine with certainty whether or not a plant is Native. The status of some plants previously though of as Native e.g. Fritillaria meleagris (Fritillary) is now doubted by some botanists but that doubt is disputed (hotly!) by others.
A Native plant is one which has been growing in the area without being introduced by man usually for many thousands of years. It includes naturally occurring hybrids even if those have only recently been discovered. An Archeophyte is an established plant believed to have been introduced by man before 1500 AD. A Neophyte has been introduced and naturalised after 1500 AD. A Casual alien is a plant which grows in an area without being planted but fails to establish itself in the wild for very long. Thi classification comes from the very authoritative BSBI.

Of the remainder some are "known in the wild" as established introductions or garden escapes. The remainder are not known to thrive in the wild in this way and are classified as UK Alien species (and so will normally be in FloralImages as examples from cultivation).

Cultivars and variants
After a period of some uncertainly I have regularised the approach with regard to these. Flowers are now grouped by their species (or maybe sub-species) name without regard to variants or garden cultivars. These attributes are however quoted in the name beside each picture where they are known to apply. There is now a new index of Cultivars and Variants to help in locating these.

Vice Counties - what are these ?
The location areas I use are the botanical Vice Counties established in the mid 19th century and used ever since for botanical recording. There are inevitably some anomalies compared to modern local government boundaries and the larger counties are divided. For more information see the BSBI website. I record Grid references when I take photographs and use the digital data from the NBN to determine which Vice County the photograph was taken in for the UK. For Ireland I have created my own reasonably accurate digital data to determine West from Mid Cork etc.

Images and copyright
The images are all mine except where otherwise indicated and, while I claim no particularly special quality or coverage I think the resource is sufficiently potentially useful to share it in this way. I reserve copyright on the images (and on behalf of those others whose photographs I have included) but the intention is not to be unduly restrictive of their more general use.

Full printing-resolution versions of the images are available at reasonable prices. This can only be for private use and I do normally require a more substantial payment for images to be used in published works. (I will normally grant non-exclusive world rights in such circumstances.)

Exceptions - free use of pictures for publication
I will supply images free for use in promotional / signage material for nature reserves in the UK that I have visited and taken photographs in. Also bodies such as the BSBI may use my images for any published purpose in return for acknowledgement.

I should emphasise that this site is nowhere close to being a profitable concern at present. The only reason I ask for payment for use of pictures is partially to offset the cost of hosting and maintaining the site. If I were to move on to starting to covering the photographic costs I should consider myself to be doing exceptionally well !

Guest images. I welcome images submitted for inclusion in FloralImages if they will enhance the botanical range of the site. Please note though that, although the site does feature plants from all over the world that are grown in European gardens, the scope of the site is restricted at present to Northern Europe and the prime focus is on the native flora of that region.
I cannot include images of garden cultivars as guests.
For a picture to be considered as a guest you should have been able to identify it for genus and, in most cases, species. Most guests should be listed in the BSBI database if they are to be suitable for inclusion - certainly the genus should be.
I will respect your copyright on your submitted images and any comment or request about your image will be passed on to you by email. Please note, however, that protection of copyright in an absolute sense is impossible on the Internet - so if you find your image being used without your consent I cannot be held liable and I accept images on this understanding.
Submit pictures either as high quality JPEG files of greater than 1000 pixels width / height or as "ready for web" JPEG images at 500 pixels wide or high with the other dimension smaller. Please indicate a) the photographer and b) the person who identified the plant / flower.

Seed sources for cultivated flowers

Much of my seed comes (legitimately) from botanic gardens and collections organised by them. A valuable source for some years was the Seed Guild, now sadly defunct, that distributed seed from Botanic gardens around to world to interested members. I took seed from 1977 to 2002 from this source - both from the general list (where seed was distributed on a lottery basis) and from collection trips made by botanists in Tuva (1997), Sikhote (1998) and Kazakhstan (1999) - all in Asia.
I also get seed from Bristol University Botanic Garden, both from their own sources and from a list they distribute which includes seed from other botanic gardens.
Finally I also buy seed from Chiltern Seeds and have done so for many years. All of these sources are noted with the pictures - where I can remember / decipher my notes / labels !

Mosses, Lichens and Fungi
I have started to include these but must warn that I cannot identify many of them reliably. Any assistance would be gratefully accepted and acknowledged - but I have to concentrate for now on getting my vascular plant identification up to scratch.

Sources

I also search out names on the web a lot looking for corroboration of my hunches. Some of the sites I have found most useful are on my links page.

Acknowledgments

As I walk more regularly in the Mendips and go on guided walks organised by the local Somerset Wildlife Trust I am increasingly indebted to the many Trust members who have helped me recognise many of the plants and flowers. It is amazing a) how much they know and b) how many common plants that I may have heard of I still cannot reliably identify myself.
2004 I have attended a very useful course organised by the Trust in plant identification and the results should, I trust, be apparent on the site. I am greatly indebted to the course organisers, Helen Wells and Liz Biron.
Many people are now helping FloralImages by sending in comments pointing out my gaffes or helping with my uncertain IDs. Many thanks to all - they are acknowledged on individual flower pages where appropriate.

Contact details
John Crellin

Floral Images, Hay-on-Wye, UK

* I've given up growing crocuses here for instance - thanks to mice / squirrels.