Stewart Robert Hinsley writes

Spring beauty? Claytonia perfoliata? Relative of Pink Purslane?

Yes. It's quite common as a pavement weed.

I can't recall ever seeing it. Is it more a southern thing? We have Pink
Purslane in the local woods in abundance, and also a tiny patch in the
urban nature reserve that I look after - but that patch is dying out as
the tree cover increases. I've tried transplanting bits of it without
success, so I think I'll just have to accept that things change.

Two that I now notice more frequently are Pignut and Town Hall Clock -
because now I can recognise their leaves. All too often you need the
flower for the first identification, so for most of the year you can
be walking right past the plant, but without flowers you don't know
what it is.

Pignut is another one I've been noticing more this year. Town Hall
Clock seems to be rare round here - I've seen it once, on a canal
towpath about ten miles away. I had a fair idea what it was at the
time, but confirmed it when I got home. It's supposed to be present in
a nature reserve about 4 miles away, but I haven't seen it there.

Whereabouts is 'round here'? Lots of it in Yorkshire Dales, in damp
woods on limestone.

What I never see is hemlock - am I overlooking it as something else?

Pass. I've not yet got into the umbellifers.

I find it adds a lot for me to be able to identify a plants and know
where it fits in. Last year I finally got to grips with very basic
grass identification and walks where I used to think "no flowers -
boring!" are suddenly full of interest. I think this is somewhat of a
defect in me - other people can recognise beauty without the need to
stick it into a taxonomic structure.

You're ahead of me there. My next step is to crack Salix (I can tell
that there's lots of different willows around - I just can't divide
them into groups).
I'm still having trouble with docks, willow herbs and trefoils/medicks
as well. When I've sorted those out I can make a start on grasses,
sedges and rushes.

I haven't even begun on trees! I played around with docks and
willowherbs last year, but will need to go back to the books this year.
Trefoils/medicks are in the 'too difficult' pile atm. Had a great time n
the Alentejo identifying little yellow legumes from their seedpods -
there are some really weird ones, lots of spirals, with or without
spines or warts, and various ones with chunks taken out of them.

The trouble I find is that I learnt a lot of wildflowers from my mother
when I was very young, but on the lines of 'dog violet', 'catsear',
'ragwort'. So things I didn't see as a child, like orchids, or just
about anything that grows on limestone, I get the books out and sort out
to species level. But the things I think I 'know' keep giving me a nasty
shock when I find out that there's more than one of them.
--
Kay