Get to know 19 plants selected from Sofia. Discover their scientific names, identifying features and growing needs.
Cichorium intybus
A crop plant, a parent of cultivated chicory. The thick roots are also used to make a coffee substitute, and is sometimes seen naturalised. It has wiry, branching upright stems with numerous flowers distributed along the branches, growing t
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Achillea millefolium
A spreading stoloniferous perennial with narrow, finely pinnately dissected leaves and small, cream or pink flowerheads in flat heads in summer
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Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
K. blossfeldiana is a bushy evergreen succulent perennial to 40cm, with fleshy, ovate leaves, and terminal panicles of tubular red flowers spreading lobes in early spring
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Hedera helix
H. helix is a vigorous, self-clinging climber with three- to five-lobed, glossy, evergreen leaves, often with pale green veins, and some reddish or bronzy colours in autumn. Mature plants produce bushy, non-clinging branches with diamond-sh
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Galium verum
A stoloniferous perennial with erect or sprawling stems bearing whorled linear leaves and terminal panicles of tiny 4-lobed yellow flowers in late summer
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Clematis vitalba
A very vigorous climber to a height of 7m plus, with mid- to dark green foliage, flowering from mid-summer to early autumn. Clusters of small, four-petalled, creamy-white flowers, with a green tinge and prominent white stamens, are followed
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Capsicum annuum
This is the wild plant from which many of our cultivated sweet peppers and chillies have been bred. It shows a wide range of fruit shapes, colours, sizes and degree of capsaicin production - from where the heat may or may not be felt. It ha
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Fagus sylvatica
Large, vigorous deciduous tree reaching 30m in height, with a broad, spreading crown. Leaves broadly elliptic, yellow-green in spring, rich golden copper to russet-brown in autumn. Small, green flowers in early spring, are followed by brist
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Robinia pseudoacacia
R. pseudoacacia is a fast-growing, spreading tree to 25m tall with deeply furrowed rough bark and spines formed from stipules on twigs and suckers. The dark green leaves comprise 5-11 pairs of oval leaflets. Dense, drooping clusters of slig
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Syringa vulgaris
This is the wild species of Lilac from which all our modern varieties have been selected. It is a deciduous shrub which grows into a bushy thicket of around 7 x 7m and has green heart-shaped leaves. The light blue-purple flowers are very sw
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Acer pseudoplatanus
A large, fast-growing, resilient, deciduous tree with dark green, five-lobed leaves 10-20cm long. Yellow-green, catkin-like flowers in spring are followed by bunches of green, winged fruit
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Lythrum salicaria
L. salicaria is a robust herbaceous perennial with upright stems to 1.2m tall, clad in narrow, willowy leaves, and small vivid purplish-pink flowers 2cm wide in dense terminal spikes over a long period in summer
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Aesculus hippocastanum
A large, broad-crowned deciduous tree. Leaves large, with 5-7 leaflets, turning red-brown early in autumn. Flowers creamy-white with a yellow spot that turns red with age. Fruit large, spiny
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Prunus laurocerasus
P. laurocerasus is a vigorous, large, spreading evergreen shrub with handsome, glossy dark green leaves to 15cm in length. Small white flowers in erect racemes to 12cm in length are followed by cherry-like glossy red fruits soon turning bla
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Bellis perennis
An evergreen perennial forming rosettes of dark green, spoon-shaped leaves, with small, solitary, yellow-centred, pink-tinged, white daisies in late spring and summer
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Echium vulgare
Erect, bristly biennial to 75cm, with lance-shaped, hairy leaves and dense cylindrical spikes of bell-shaped violet-blue flowers in early summer
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Daucus carota
The wild carrot is a tap-rooted biennial, its solid, ridged stems reaching 75cm in height. In summer it bears white umbels, tinged with pink in bud and sometimes in flower and the very central floret is dark red. Only this flower produces n
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Chelidonium majus
A sparsely hairy, somewhat spreading plant to 90cm, with broadly-lobed pinnately-divided leaves, and yellow flowers in spring and summer. Self-seeds and naturalises freely
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Alliaria petiolata
A hairy biennial herb, which can be variable in height; is usually unbranched and bears heart to kidney-shaped toothed green leaves that emit a pungent garlic odour especially when crushed. Flowers are white from 3-5mm in diameter and born
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