The Leadwort family of plants, Plumbaginaceae, comprises some 24 genera containing about 800 plant species. The flowers are most often pink or blue and have five petals, five sepals and five stamens and they are usully in tight clusters.Many of the plants in this family thrive in dry and salty habitats. The name Plumbaginaceae comes from an ancient belief that some of the flowers in this group have the ability to cure lead poisoning.
These thumbnail pictures have links to larger photographs and information about each of the species, their habitat needs and an identification guide.
We have used the Scientific names to identify species in this table, but all of wildflowers featured on this website can be arranged A to Z by either Scientific names, Common names or Botanical families via our Sortable Index Table, where we have also provided the facility to arrange flowers in order by dominant Colour.
Introduction to wild flower families...
Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged edition of Wild Orchids in The Burren. Full details here...
Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...
Sue Parker's new ebook is a comprehensive and fully revised edition of her acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of Wales. Full details here...
Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.
Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.