The urban historian should always look up; the urban botanist should look down. Urban exploration can be a dangerous business.
This is Galinsoga Parviflora, which has acquired the wonderful folk name “Gallant Soldier” – which is what made me think of the Strategic Defence Review. There is also a hairier cousin species which is known as the “Shaggy Soldier”.
The species was named for Dom Mariano Martinez de Galinsoga, a Spanish botanist. It is native to South America and was introduced to Kew Gardens in 1796. Since then, it has very gently spread through southern England. I think of it as a London weed and associate it with London Squares, where it grows happily under railings and in cracks at the edge of pavements. I was delighted to find it when I moved to Cheltenham thirty-five years ago and have sought it out in the same location each year since then.
The plant is small, insignificant and frail: the flowers are no more than 6mm across. It is usually to be found at, or near, the High Street entrance to the High Street car park. This year, there is a solitary plant in a corner in front of the Sue Ryder shop.
It is an annual plant that regenerates each year from seeds sown the previous year. This might seem to be an insecure lifestyle, but it offers great flexibility. The flower has survived thirty-five years of changing attitudes to weeds and a variety of control methods – spray, scrape, ignore, repeat – by quietly going about its business of finding a niche to ensure continuity.
The periods of neglect, however, have allowed more aggressive, perennial plants – particularly Pellitory of the Wall (Parietaria Judaica) – to dominate opportunities at the base of walls around the town.
Native plants are adapted to respond to urban opportunities and threats and survive despite environmental changes. The botanical stories in our town are much more interesting than the random sowing of largely alien, garden cultivar, annual plants as “wild flowers” in the town.