Wildflower garden at the Crick Institute

Sadly, not everything can stay undeveloped so it's good when a new development has a decent wildflower area, as the new Crick Institute does, not far from St Pancras Old Church and the canal. Those are bees on the globe thistles. This area has full sun so the globe thistles are in bloom, mine aren't quite yet.

there were dusky cranesbill

close-up of some of the globe thistles

helenium

I didn't know this euphorbia before, google tells me euphorbia griffithii.

I don't know if it's attractive to bees. I didn't see any around it. But then I'm seeing a lot fewer bees.

contrast that with this epic fail at Gasholders

they've put in flowerbeds - in a very controlled way

great burnet and yellow yarrow ?

but it hasn't stopped them from using weedkiller nearby

thank goodness red valerian can still self-seed by St Pancras Lock

just to the left of the lock, my most frequent non-plant photographic subject, the Post Office Tower, in the distance (railway line out of St Pancras just beyond the canal, new Somers Town pedestrian bridge to the left)

and further along the canal there are some wildflowers that haven't been chemically treated or controlled

purple loosestrife

woundwort?

great hairy willowherb

wild buckwheat, not sure how "wild" it is, I've had it in my garden from bird seed

large drifts of common orache and

fat hen

huge teasels

bees on the lesser burdock

This large-leaved plant is at the edge of the canal, I'm not sure but I think it's white butterbur (petasites albus or maybe the other butterbur, winter heliotrope petasites fragrans). I guess flowers would be definitive but not sure when they'd appear. Must note specifically where it is, in case the leaves die back, so I know where to look for flowers.