NEN Gallery

The Dog's Mercury is now in flower. Dog's Mercury is a herb 1-40cm tall with creeping rhizomes, unbranched stems and pairs of short stalked oval leaves opposite each other. There are separate male and female plants. The male flowers (pictured) are arranged in erect catkin like spikes. Each flower has three green sepals 2mm long and 8-1 stamens. The female plants have flowers in groups of 1-3, each with 3 green sepals and ovary that forms a rounded fruit. The leaves on the female plant are wider than the male. The plants flower February to April. Picture taken at Felmersham, Bedfordshire - March 29th 2006.