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Sundial spotlight

European eel

The European eel is snake-like and 60–80 cm in length. The life span is officially unknown but eels kept in captivity have lived to just over 80 years. This species is nocturnal, and private, burying itself in mud or under stones during the day.

European eels spend most of their adult lives in freshwater rivers, streams and estuaries before returning to the open ocean to spawn. When the eggs hatch, young eels drift around the sea as larvae for between 7 months and 3 years. At this stage they have small heads and leaf-like wide bodies. As they develop they become longer and thinner and then translucent (glass eels).

When they migrate back into fresh water young eels gain pigmentation and become elvers. Over the next 20 years they grow, and develop a yellow coloured underside, and travel upstream towards less salty, cooler water.

Finally eels transform back to ‘silver eels’ and migrate the thousands of miles back to the sea where they spawn and die.

Ragged robin

Ragged robin (Silene flos-cuculi) has pink, roughly divided flowers. It can be found in damp pasture, meadows and open woodland throughout the UK although it is becoming less common due to habitat loss. It is native to Europe and Asia.

Pink flowers of ragged robin

The leaves are narrow and grass like, and the plant usually grows to about 75 cm. The stems have barbed hairs pointing downwards that make them rough to touch.

Ragged robin blooms from May to August, and occasionally later. Its fruits consist of small seed-containing capsules opening at the top with five teeth, from August onwards.

Its flowers attract insects including bumblebees, butterflies, and long-tongued bees.

In folklore it was said that if you carried a ragged robin in your pocket it would bring success in love. It is also sometimes known as the cuckoo flower.

Great burnet

Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) is native in the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere, such as Europe, northern Asia and North America. It is a member of the rose family, a perennial that can survive for decades due to its complex root system. It flourishes in floodplain meadows, and usually flowers from June to September.

The plant can be identified by the oval crimson-red flower heads that appear on its long green stalks. They look a little like lollipops.

It used to be known as hot weed, as it was said to heat up if present in large numbers.

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