What's in it?

Narrow-leaved lupine

Lupinus angustifolius

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual or biennial plant
• Flowering period from June to September
• Under favorable conditions it can grow up to 150 cm high

Special feature:

The lupine attracts bees in particular. Besides large quantities of nectar, it also provides the pollinators with valuable pollen. This is used as building material with which the next generation of wild bees can develop.

Hop clover

Medicago lupulina

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Belongs to the annual bean plants
• Reaches growth heights of 10 to 50 cm
• Distinguished by its butterfly-like flowers and its fruits in the form of small pods

Special feature:

In flower strips and meadows, the plant is valued for its long flowering period from May to July and its remarkable drought and frost tolerance

Marigold

Calendula officinalis

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual crop
• Blooms quite early from May to June. The flowering period can last until late autumn
• Marigolds usually grow to about 30-50 cm tall
• Marigold flowers close when it is dark or precipitation is expected

Special feature:

The marigold attracts bees and hoverflies, whose larvae serve the plant because they feed on aphids.

Tagetes

Tagetes patula

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Usually grow 10 cm to 80 cm, rarely up to 200 cm high
• Tagetes patula produces numerous yellow, orange, red flowers throughout the season

Special feature:

They are characterized by a strong scent that repels ticks, mosquitoes and gnats.

Garden vetch

Vicia sativa

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual herbaceous plant
• Grows up to 80 cm
• It blooms from May to August and enchants with its violet flowers
• Climbing plant that grows best by twining around or leaning on other plants

Special feature:

The flowers are frequently visited by honeybees and bumblebees, which mainly collect the nectar from the sap glands on the stipules.

Common bird's-foot trefoil

Lotus corniculatus

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Perennial plant
• The herbaceous plant reaches a height of between 5 and 30 cm
• The flowering period is from May to August, sometimes also until September
• The Common bird's-foot trefoil has sunny yellow umbellate inflorescences with three to seven hermaphrodite flowers

Special feature:

It is a very important food plant for the caterpillars of several butterfly species. Species whose caterpillars feed on it include, for example, the blue butterfly.

Common flax (white flowers)

Linum usitatissimum

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual crop
• Blooms in June and July with five-petalled white flowers
• Growth height from 20 to 100 cm

Special feature:

The second part of the botanical name "usitatissimum" means "very useful" and refers to the many possible uses, from oil production to fibre extraction and medicinal applications.

Cornflower

Centaurea cyanus

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual plant
• Grows to around 20 to 100 cm
• The alternate leaves of the cornflower look different. The leaves near the ground are usually larger than the leaves in the upper part of the stem. While the lowest leaves are incised to slightly serrated, the upper ones are usually narrow, lanceolate and have entire margins

Special feature:

The cornflower is well suited as a cut flower, both in fresh containers and for dry bouquets. The plants are also often found as a decorative addition to teas such as Lady Grey.

Common flax (blue flowers)

Linum usitatissimum

Special feature:

It is a medicinal plant. For thousands of years, linseed oil has been used externally to treat eczema and wounds that are difficult to heal. It is also helpful in internal use for stomach and intestinal diseases.

Corn poppy

Papaver rhoeas

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Striking bright red flowers and very hairy stems
• The flowering period is from May to July

Special feature:

• Like all poppy species, the corn poppy does not produce nectar. Instead, it provides insects with protein- and lipid-rich pollen
• As one of the few plants with strong but bright red flowers that are also insensitive to air pollution, it is an indispensable component of flowering strips

Incarnate clover

Trifolium incarnatum

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual Io biennial plant
• Incarnate clover flowers from around May until August
• Growth heights of between 20 and 50 cm

Special feature:

• Cultivated for several hundred years as a forage crop and as a winter catch crop after cereals
• Incarnate clover is very rich in nectar, readily visited by bees and butterflies. Therefore the plant is particularly attractive for pollinators

Dill

Anethum graveolens

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual herboceous plant
• Usually grows to a height of 30 to 75 cm, rarely up to 120 cm
• Garden dill can be sown at any time of year

Special feature:

It is a spice and medicinal plant that does not occur in nature and originates from Asia Minor or Central Asia

Sunflower

Helianthus annuus

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual species
• Usually grows between one and two meters high

Special feature:

It has unusually thick and strong stems for an annual species; large, heart-shaped leaves that are rough to the touch and inflorescences in the shape of discs that turn towards the sun.

Mallow

Malva sylvestris

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Mostly biennia! to perennial herbaceous plant
• Under favorable conditions it renews itself by self-seeding
• Choraderized by an upright main stem and wavy leaves, a five-pelalled flower and disc-shoped fruits

Special feature:

Cultivated os o medicinol plant, vegetable and food source for bees. Valued for its resistonce to heat and drought and its excessive nedor uptoke.

Lacy Phacelia

Phacelia tanacetifolia

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual plant
• Growth height from 20 to 120 cm
• The stem is covered with short downy hairs. It has five-petalled bell-shaped flowers and the corolla is blue

Special feature:

Blue Phacelia is an excellent forage plant. Due to its extremely efficient germination regardless of sowing time and its short life span, it is highly valued as a flowering bee fora.

Buckwheat

Fagopyrum esculentum

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Annual plant
• Blooms from July to August
• Reaches heights af 20 to 60 cm as a wild plant
• The stems are thickened, hollow and have twisted leoves. The leaves ore heart-shoped or arrow-shaped and lighter on the underside

Special feature:

Provides valuable honey, porridge and flour.

Persian clover

Trifolium resupinatum

Vegetative/generative characteristics:

• Perennial plant with short life span
• Grows prostrate to oscending and grows up to 60 cm high
• The plant has the three-part leaves typical of clovers and is distinguished by its white and pink flowers

Special feature:

Farmers value Persian clover as an easily digestible, protein-rich feed for cattle, pigs and poultry.