Asteraceae in September / October

Bristly Ox-tongue (CC image Brocken Inaglory)

I've been keeping a casual eye out for Asteraceae recently and there seem to be plenty about still. If you want to do your collecting now, and to improve your botanical identification - I think I'd be tempted to choose this as my group.

This week I've seen (on campus and at the sides of roads):
Daisy (Bellis perennis)
Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Bristly Ox-tongue (Picris echioides) - it's very bristly and has lovely feathery hairs in the pappus.
Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) 

So that's eight already - and that was without trying terribly hard. So if you pick the Asteraceae and get cracking I think you could make a very healthy collection, quite easily!

I think you should be able to easily find a few more at the moment without going to any specialist habitat - species like Groundsel, Tansy, Feverfew, Gallant-soldier, Hemp-agrimony, Pineappleweed, Scentless Mayweed, Spear Thistle, Greater Burdock, Dandelion, Nipplewort, Cat's-ear, Autumn Hawkbit, Perennial / Smooth and Prickly Sow-thistle. It'd be easy to double your species count to sixteen or even more.

All these would be along roads, on wasteground and in generally 'weedy' and unkempt places. There'll be a couple of species which appear in the early spring: Colt's-foot and Butterbur. Plenty to choose from. I'd say anything that's listed in Rose's Wild Flower key is fair game (assuming it's not got an asterisk * to say it's rare and protected).

You'll need a hand lens to see all the detail on your plant. We do have some but I recommend buying one -  you can get a perfectly decent one for £10+ which'll last you a lifetime (plus you don't have to get squeamish about holding something right up to your eye that a million other sticky-fingered student have handled).  There are lots of places to get one, I could suggest NHBS or Watkins and Doncaster but there are many other options. x10 is generally enough magnification for botany.