The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail. The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.
The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa. The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree. The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days. The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest. Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground. During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young. They are partial migrants; birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.
The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators. Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.


The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name. Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single. Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.
The English name comes from the Old English ceaffinc, where ceaf is "chaff" and finc "finch". Chaffinches were likely given this name because after farmers thresh their crops, these birds sometimes spend weeks picking through heaps of discarded chaff for grain. The chaffinch is one of the many birds depicted in the marginal decoration of the 15th-century English illuminated manuscript the Sherborne Missal. The English naturalist William Turner described the common chaffinch in his book on birds Avium praecipuarum, published in 1544. Although the text is in Latin, Turner gives the English name as chaffinche and lists two folk names: sheld-appel and spink. The word sheld is a dialectal word meaning pied or multicoloured (as in shelduck). Appel may be related to Alp, an obsolete word for a bullfinch. The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note. The names spink and shell apple are among the many folk names listed for the common chaffinch by Reverend Charles Swainson in his Provincial Names and Folk Lore of British Birds (1885).
The Fringillidae are all seed-eaters with stout conical bills. They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, 12 tail feathers and no crop. In all species, the female builds the nest, incubates the eggs, and broods the young. Finches are divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species: the common chaffinch (F. coelebs), the Gran Canaria blue chaffinch (F. polatzeki), the Tenerife blue chaffinch (F. teydea), and the brambling (F. montifringilla). Fringilline finches raise their young almost entirely on arthropods, while the cardueline finches raise their young on regurgitated seeds.


A number of subspecies of the common chaffinch have been described, based principally on the differences in the pattern and colour of the adult male plumage. The subspecies can be divided into three groups: the "coelebs group" that occurs in Europe and Asia, the "spondiogenys group" in North Africa, and the "canariensis group" on the Canary Islands. The subspecies from Madeira and the Azores are placed either in the "canariensis group" or in the "spondiogenys group". Genetic studies indicate that members of the "coelebs group" and the "spondiogenys group" are more closely related to each other than they are to members of the "canariensis group".
Within the "spondiogenys group", the gradual clinal variation over the large geographic range and the extensive intergradation means that the geographical limits and acceptance of the various subspecies varies between authorities. The International Ornithologists' Union lists 11 subspecies from this group, whereas Peter Clement in the Birds of the World lists seven and considers the features of the subspecies balearica (Mallorca), caucasica (the southern Caucasus), schiebeli (southern Greece, Crete and western Turkey), and tyrrhenica (Corsica) to fall within the variation of the nominate subspecies. He also suggests that the subspecies alexandrovi, sarda, solomkoi, and  syriaca may represent variations of the nominate subspecies.
The authors of a 2009 molecular phylogenetic study on the three subspecies that were recognised on the Canary Islands concluded that they are sufficiently distinct in both genotype and phenotype to be considered as separate species within the genus Fringilla. They also proposed a revised distribution of the subspecies on the islands in which the birds on La Palma (palmae) and El Hierro (ombrioso) are grouped together as a single subspecies, while the current canariensis subspecies is split into two, with one subspecies occurring only on Gran Canaria and the other on La Gomera and Tenerife. The results of a study published in 2018 confirmed the earlier findings. The authors formerly described the Gran Canaria variety as a subspecies and coined the trinomial name Fringilla coelebs bakeri.
coelebs group
F. c. alexandrovi Zarudny, 1916 – northern Iran
F. c. caucasica Serebrovski, 1925 – Balkans and northern Greece to northern Turkey, central and eastern Caucasus and northwestern Iran
F. c. coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 (nominate subspecies) – Eurasia, from western Europe and Asia Minor to Siberia
F. c. balearica von Jordans, 1923 – Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands
F. c. gengleri O. Kleinschmidt, 1909 – British Isles
F. c. sarda Rapine, 1925 – Sardinia
F. c. schiebeli Erwin Stresemann, 1925 – southern Greece, Crete and western Turkey
F. c. solomkoi Menzbier & Sushkin, 1913 – Crimean Peninsula and southwestern Caucasus
F. c. syriaca J. M. Harrisson, 1945 – Cyprus, southeastern Turkey to northern Iran and Jordan
F. c. transcaspia Zarudny, 1916 – northeastern Iran and southwestern Turkmenistan
F. c. tyrrhenica Schiebel, 1910 – Corsica
spondiogenys group
F. c. africana J. Levaillant, 1850 – Morocco to northwestern Tunisia, northeastern Libya
F. c. spodiogenys Bonaparte, 1841 – Eastern Tunisia and northwestern Libya: Atlas chaffinch
canariensis group
F. c. canariensis Vieillot, 1817 – central Canary Islands (La Gomera and Tenerife and Gran Canaria)
F. c. bakeri Illera et al., 2018 – central Canary Islands (Gran Canaria)
F. c. maderensis Sharpe, 1888 – Madeira: Madeiran chaffinch
F. c. moreletti Pucheran, 1859 – Azores
F. c. ombriosa Hartert, 1913 – El Hierro, Canary Islands
F. c. palmae Tristram, 1889 – La Palma, Canary Islands: La Palma chaffinch


The common chaffinch is about 14.5 cm (5.7 in) long, with a wingspan of 24.5–28.5 cm (9.6–11.2 in) and a weight of 18–29 g (0.63–1.02 oz). The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle. The rump is a light olive-green; the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle. The side of head, throat and breast are a dull rust-red merging to a pale creamy-pink on the belly. The central pair of tail feathers are dark grey with a black shaft streak. The rest of the tail is black apart from the two outer feathers on each side which have white wedges. Each wing has a contrasting white panel on the coverts and a buff-white bar on the secondaries and inner primaries. The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes. The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.
After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage. The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed. The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown. In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.
The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F. c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts. The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast. The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle. Male chaffinches in Madeira (F. c. maderensis) and the Azores (F. c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.
The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male. The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown. The underparts are paler. The lower back and rump are a dull olive green. The wings and tail are similar to those of the male. The juvenile resembles the female.


Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.
The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe. Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song. He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.


The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between 12 and 30 °C (54 and 86 °F). The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia. There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century. In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species. In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.
This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter. It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings. It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.


Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old. They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next. The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast. In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June. A male attracts a female to his territory through song.
Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground. The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers. The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass. The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete. The clutch is typically 4–5 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour. They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks. The average size of an egg is 19 mm × 15 mm (0.75 in × 0.59 in) with a weight of 2.2 g (0.078 oz). The eggs are incubated for 10–16 days by the female. The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days. They are mainly fed caterpillars. The nestlings fledge 11–18 days after hatching and disperse. The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks. The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest. Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers. After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.
In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent. From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.


Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground. They often forage in open country in large flocks. Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food. During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars. They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air. The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs (the larvae of beetles).


The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels. Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find. Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.
The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite. The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany. The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain. In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006. There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches. A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.
Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus. The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg. The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.


The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles) and a large population including an estimated 130–240 million breeding pairs in Europe. Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals. There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.
The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.


The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold. At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks. In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: "To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch." Competitions were held where bets were placed on which caged common chaffinch would repeat its song the greatest number of times. The birds were sometimes blinded with a hot needle in the belief that this encouraged them to sing. This practice is the subject of the poem The Blinded Bird by the English author Thomas Hardy, which contrasts the cruelty involved in blinding the birds with their zestful song. In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.
The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries. In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour.


Cramp, Stanley, ed. (1994). "Fringilla coelebs Chaffinch". Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 8: Crows to Finches. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 448–473. ISBN 978-0-19-854679-5.
Newton, Ian (1972). Finches. The New Naturalist, Volume 55. London: Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-213065-3.


Fritillaria biflora, the chocolate lily or mission bells, is a species of fritillary native to western California, US, and northern Baja California, Mexico. It occurs in the chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, often in serpentine soil formations and hillside grassland habitats.
Fritillaria biflora is a bulbous herbaceous perennial up to 60 cm tall. It is called "chocolate lily" because its flowers can resemble the color of chocolate, although sometimes they are greenish purple or yellowish green. Flowers bloom in March and April.
Fritillaria biflora should not be confused with Arthropodium strictum, which is also called "chocolate lily". In the latter, the scent is reminiscent of chocolate, rather than the color. The Kamchatka fritillary (F. camschatcensis) is sometimes also called "chocolate lily" in Alaska.


Two varieties are recognized:
Fritillaria biflora var. biflora—leaves widely lanceolate, most of the species range
Fritillaria biflora var. ineziana Jeps., Fl. Calif. 1: 306 (1922).  -- leaves narrowly lanceolate, endangered taxon known only from one location in San Mateo County


Fritillaria camschatcensis is a species of flowering plant native to northeastern Asia and northwestern North America, including northern Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, northern Japan, and the Russian Far East (Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands).  It has many common names, including Kamchatka fritillary and Kamchatka lily.
It is also called rice lily, northern rice-root, or (misleadingly) Indian rice or wild rice, because of the rice-like bulblets that form around its roots.


Fritillaria camschatcensis produces bulbs with several large fleshy scales, similar to those of commercially cultivated garlic. Leaves are lanceolate, up to 10 cm long, borne in whorls along the stem. Stem is up to 60 cm tall, with flowers at the top. Flowers are spreading or nodding (hanging downwards), dark brown, sometimes mottled with yellow.


Fritillaria pudica, the yellow fritillary, is a small perennial plant found in the sagebrush country in the western United States (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, very northern California, Nevada, northwestern Colorado, North Dakota and Utah) and Canada (Alberta and British Columbia). It is a member of the lily family Liliaceae. Another common (but somewhat ambiguous) name is "yellow bells", since it has a bell-shaped yellow flower. It may be found in dryish, loose soil; it is amongst the first plants to flower after the snow melts, but the flower does not last very long; as the petals age, they turn a brick-red colour and begin to curl outward. The flowers grow singly or in pairs on the stems, and the floral parts grow in multiples of threes. The species produces a small corm, which forms corms earning the genus the nickname 'riceroot'. During his historic journey, Meriwether Lewis collected a specimen while passing through Idaho in 1806.
The corm can be dug up and eaten fresh or cooked; it served Native Americans as a good source of food in times past, and is still eaten occasionally. Today these plants are not common, so digging and eating the corms is not encouraged. The plant is called [ˈsɨkni] in Sahaptin.


The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step which facilitates walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old.
The American coot is a migratory bird that occupies most of North America. It lives in the Pacific and southwestern United States and Mexico year-round and occupies more northeastern regions during the summer breeding season. In the winter they can be found as far south as Panama. Coots generally build floating nests and lay 8–12 eggs per clutch. Females and males have similar appearances, but they can be distinguished during aggressive displays by the larger ruff (head plumage) on the male. American coots eat primarily algae and other aquatic plants but also animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates) when available.
The American coot is listed as “Least Concern” under the IUCN conservation ratings. Hunters generally avoid killing American coots because their meat is not as sought after as that of ducks.
Much research has been done on the breeding habits of American coots. Studies have found that mothers will preferentially feed offspring with the brightest plume feathers, a characteristic known as chick ornaments. American coots are also susceptible to conspecific brood parasitism and have evolved mechanisms to identify which offspring are theirs and which are from parasitic females.


The American coot was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789. A member of the family Rallidae, it has three subspecies in addition to the nominate: Fulica americana alai, F. a. caribaea, and F. a. ardesiaca. These subspecies, however, are sometimes considered to be their own separate species. Including these 'subspecies', there are 11 members of the genus Fulica distributed across the globe.
Coot fossils from the Middle Pleistocene of California have been described as Fulica hesterna but cannot be separated from the present-day American coot. However, the Pleistocene coot Fulica shufeldti (formerly F. minor), famously known as part of the Fossil Lake fauna, quite possibly was a paleosubspecies of the American coot (as Fulica americana shufeldti) as they only differed marginally in size and proportions from living birds. Thus, it seems that the modern-type American coots evolved during the mid-late Pleistocene, a few hundred thousand years ago.
The American coot's genus name, Fulica, is a direct borrowing of the Latin word for "coot". The specific epithet americana means "America".


The American coot measures 34–43 cm (13–17 in) in length with a wingspan of 58 to 71 cm (23 to 28 in). Adults have a short, thick, white bill and white frontal shield, which usually has a reddish-brown spot near the top of the bill between the eyes. Males and females look alike, but females are smaller. Body mass in females ranges from 427 to 628 g (0.941 to 1.385 lb) and in males from 576 to 848 g (1.270 to 1.870 lb). Juvenile birds have olive-brown crowns and a gray body. They become adult-colored around 4 months of age.


The American coot has a variety of repeated calls and sounds. Male and female coots make different types of calls to similar situations. Male alarm calls are puhlk while female alarm calls are poonk. Also, stressed males go puhk-cowah or pow-ur while females call cooah.


American coots are found near water reed-ringed lakes and ponds, open marshes, and sluggish rivers. They prefer freshwater environments but may temporarily live in saltwater environments during the winter months.
The American coot's breeding habitat extends from marshes in southern Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as northern South America. Birds from temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the southern United States and southern British Columbia. It is often a year-round resident where water remains open in winter. The number of birds that stay year-round near the northern limit of the species' range seems to be increasing.
Autumn migration occurs from August to December, with males and non-breeders moving south before the females and juveniles. Spring migration to breeding ranges occurs from late February to mid-May, with males and older birds moving North first. There has been evidence of birds travelling as far north as Greenland and Iceland.


The American coot is a highly gregarious species, particularly in the winter, when its flocks can number in the thousands. When swimming on the water surface, American coots exhibit a variety of interesting collective formations, including single-file lines, high density synchronized swimming and rotational dynamics, broad arcing formations, and sequential take-off dynamics.


The American coot can dive for food but can also forage and scavenge on land. Their principal source of food is aquatic vegetation, especially algae. Yet they are omnivorous, also eating arthropods, fish, and other aquatic animals.  During breeding season, coots are more likely to eat aquatic insects and mollusks—which constitute the majority of a chick's diet.


The coot mating season occurs during May and June. Coot mate pairings are monogamous throughout their life, given they have a suitable territory. A typical reproductive cycle involves multiple stages: pairing, nesting, copulation, egg deposition, incubation, and hatching.
The American coot typically has long courtship periods. This courtship period is characterized by billing, bowing, and nibbling. Males generally initiate billing, which is the touching of bills between individuals. As the pair bond becomes more evident, both males and females will initiate billing only with each other and not other males or females. After a pair bond is cemented, the mating pair looks for a territory to build a nest in. A pair bond becomes permanent when a nesting territory is secured. Copulation behavior among coot pairs always falls under the same general pattern. First the male chases the female. Then, the female moves to the display platform and squats with her head under the water. The male then mounts the female, using his claws and wings to balance on the female's back while she brings her head above the water. Sexual intercourse usually takes no longer than two seconds.


The American coot is a prolific builder and will create multiple structures during a single breeding season. It nests in well-concealed locations in tall reeds. There are three general types of structures: display platforms, egg nests and brood nests.
Display platforms are used as roosting sites and are left to decompose after copulation.
Egg nests are typically 30 cm (12 in) in diameter with a 30–38 cm (12–15 in) ramp that allows the parents to enter and exit without tearing the sides of the nests. Coots will often build multiple egg nests before selecting one to lay their eggs in.
Brood nests are nests that are either newly constructed or have been converted from old egg nests after the eggs hatch, becoming larger egg nests.
Since American coots build on the water, their structures disintegrate easily and have short life spans. Egg and brood nests are actually elaborate rafts, and must be constantly added to in order to stay afloat. Females typically do the most work while building.


Females deposit one egg a day until the clutch is complete. Eggs are usually deposited between sunset and midnight. Typically, early season and first clutches average two more eggs than second nestings and late season clutches. Early season nests see an average of 9.0 eggs per clutch while late clutches see an average of 6.4 eggs per clutch. There is an inverse relationship between egg weights and laying sequence, wherein earlier eggs are larger than eggs laid later in the sequence. It is possible to induce a female coot to lay more eggs than normal by either removing all or part of her clutch. Sometimes, a female may abandon the clutch if enough eggs are removed. Coots, however, do not respond to experimental addition of eggs by laying fewer eggs.
The American coot is a persistent re-nester, and will replace lost clutches with new ones within two days of clutch-loss during deposition. One study showed that 68% of destroyed clutches are eventually replaced. Re-nested clutches are typically smaller than original clutches by one or two eggs, but this could be attributed to differences in time and habitat quality instead of food or nutrient reserves and availability.

Younger females reproduce later in the season and produce smaller eggs than older females. Their offspring are also smaller. However, there is no difference in clutch size between older and younger females as there is in other avian species.


Incubation start time in the American coot is variable, and can begin anywhere from the deposition of the first egg to after the clutch is fully deposited. Starting incubation before the entire clutch has been laid is an uncommon practice among birds. Once incubation starts it continues without interruption. Male and female coots share incubation responsibility, but males do most of the work during the 21-day incubation period. Females will begin to re-nest clutches in an average of six days if clutches are destroyed during incubation.
Hatch order usually follows the same sequence as laying order. Regardless of clutch size, eight is the typical maximum size of a brood. Egg desertion is a frequent occurrence among coots because females will often deposit more than eight eggs. Brood size limits incubation time, and when a certain number of chicks have hatched the remaining eggs are abandoned. The mechanism for egg abandonment has not yet been discovered. Food resource constraints may limit the number of eggs parents let hatch, or the remaining eggs may not provide enough visual or tactile stimulation to elicit incubation behavior. An American coot can be forced to hatch more eggs than are normally laid. These additional offspring, however, suffer higher mortality rates due to inadequacy in brooding or feeding ability.


Hormones that are passed down from the mother into the egg affect offspring growth, behavior, and social interactions. These nongenetic contributions by the mother are known as maternal effects. In the American coot, two levels of androgen and testosterone variation have been discovered—within-clutch and among-clutch variation. Within the same clutch, eggs laid earlier in the sequence have higher testosterone levels than eggs laid later in the sequence. Females that lay three clutches deposit more androgens into their yolks than females who lay only one or two clutches.


The American coot has a mixed reproductive strategy, and conspecific brood parasitism is a common alternative reproductive method. In one 4-year study, researchers found that 40% of nests were parasitized, and that 13% of all eggs were laid by females in nests that were not their own. Increasing reproductive success under social and ecological constraints is the primary reason for brood parasitism. Floater females without territories or nests use brood parasitism as their primary method of reproduction, if they breed at all. Other females may engage in brood parasitism if their partially complete clutches are destroyed. Conspecific brood parasitic behavior is most common among females trying to increase their total number of offspring. Food supply is the limiting factor to chick survival and starvation is the most common cause of chick morbidity. Parasitic females bypass the parental care constraint of feeding by laying additional parasitic eggs in addition to their normal nest.
When a parasitic female lays her egg in a host female's nest, the host female experiences a deposition rate of two eggs per day. Host females may recognize parasitic eggs when the egg deposition pattern deviates from the traditional one egg per day pattern. The occurrence of brood parasitism may be influenced by the body size of the potential parasitic female relative to the potential host female. Parasitic females are generally larger than their host counterparts, but on average, there is no size difference between the parasite and the host.
The American coot, unlike other parasitized species, has the ability to recognize and reject conspecific parasitic chicks from their brood. Parents aggressively reject parasite chicks by pecking them vigorously, drowning them, preventing them from entering the nest, etc. They learn to recognize their own chicks by imprinting on cues from the first chick that hatches. The first-hatched chick is a reference to which parents discriminate between later-hatched chicks. Chicks that do not match the imprinted cues are then recognized as parasite chicks and are rejected.
Chick recognition reduces the costs associated with parasitism, and coots are one of only three bird species in which this behavior has evolved. This is because hatching order is predictable in parasitized coots—host eggs will reliably hatch before parasite eggs. In other species where hatching order is not as reliable, there is a risk of misimprinting on a parasite chick first and then rejecting their own chicks. In these species, the cost of accidentally misimprinting is greater than the benefits of rejecting parasite chicks.


The first evidence for parental selection of exaggerated, ornamental traits in offspring was found in American coots. Black American coot chicks have conspicuously orange-tipped ornamental plumes covering the front half of their body that are known as “chick ornaments” that eventually get bleached out after six days. This brightly colored, exaggerated trait makes coot chicks more susceptible to predation and does not aid in thermoregulation, but remains selected for by parental choice. These plumes are not necessary for chick viability, but increased chick ornamentation increases the likelihood that a chick will be chosen as a favorite by the parents. Experimental manipulation of chick ornamentation by clipping the bright plumes has shown that parents prefer ornamented chicks over non-ornamented ones.


The American coot is listed under "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. They are common and widespread, and are sometimes even considered a pest. They are rarely the targets of hunters since their meat is not considered to be as good as that of ducks; although some are shot for sport, particularly in the southeastern United States. Because they are found in wetlands, scientists use them to monitor toxin levels and pollution problems in these environments.


The Andean coot (Fulica ardesiaca), also known as the slate-coloured coot, is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is found in the Andes from far southwestern Colombia to northwestern Argentina. Its natural habitats are swamps and freshwater lakes. Fossils tentatively assigned to this species are known from the Laguna de Tagua Tagua formation of Chile.


The bill and shield color are variable. The most common combination is a chestnut shield and yellow bill with a black spot on it. Other combinations are yellow shield / white bill and white shield / white bill.


The Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa. It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield. The sexes are similar. Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.


The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra. Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden. The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means "coot", and atra mean "black".
Four subspecies are recognised:
F. a. atra Linnaeus, 1758 – Europe and north Africa to Japan, India, southeast Asia, Philippines and Borneo
F. a. lugubris Müller, S, 1847 – Java, Bali, northwest New Guinea
F. a. novaeguineae Rand, 1940 – central New Guinea
F. a. australis Gould, 1845 – Australia and New Zealand
An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica,  has been described from the Chalcolithic (around 4800-4400 BP) from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.


The Eurasian coot is 36–38 cm (14–15 in) in length with a wing-span of 70–80 cm (28–31 in); males weigh around 890 g (31 oz) and females 750 g (26 oz). It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield (which gives rise to the phrase "as bald as a coot", in use as early as 1430). As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes. The sexes are similar in appearance.
The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield; the adult black plumage develops when about 3–4 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.
The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.


The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds. It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand. It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.


The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands. It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence. During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.
It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing. It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders. As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances. It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.
When fighting other waterbirds (especially other coots), the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.


The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl. It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open. It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female. The eggs are laid at daily intervals. The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles. On average they are 53 mm × 36 mm (2.1 in × 1.4 in) and weigh 38 g (1.3 oz). The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days. The chicks are precocial and nidifugous. The chicks are covered with a black down. On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips. On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red. Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red. The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip. The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male. The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks. On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group. The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days. Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood. They first breed when they are one to two years old.
Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.  Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food. Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food. They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging. If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed. Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.


The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit. It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water. In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.


The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


Cramp, Stanley, ed. (1980). "Fulica atra Coot". Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic: Volume II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 599–610. ISBN 978-0-19-857505-4.


The red-knobbed coot  or crested coot, (Fulica cristata), is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.
It is a resident breeder across much of Africa and in southernmost Spain on freshwater lakes and ponds. It builds a nest of dead reeds near the water's edge or more commonly afloat, laying about 8 eggs (or more in good conditions). However, its behaviour towards its own young is so aggressive that only a few are likely to survive to adulthood.


The red-knobbed coot is largely black except for the white frontal shield. It is 38–45 cm (15–18 in) long, spans 75–85 cm (30–33 in) across the wings and weighs 585–1,085 g (1.290–2.392 lb). As a swimming species, it has partial webbing on its long strong toes. The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield; the adult's black plumage develops when about 3–4 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old, some time later.
A good view is necessary to separate this species from the Eurasian coot, with which its range overlaps. There are two tiny red knobs at the top of the facial shield, which are not visible at any great distance and are only present in the breeding season; the black feathering between the shield and the bill is rounded, whereas in Eurasian it comes to a point; and the bill has a bluish grey tinge. In flight, the red-knobbed coot lacks the white trailing edge to the secondaries of the Eurasian coot.


The habits of the red-knobbed coot are practically identical to those of the Eurasian coot. It is much less secretive than most of the rail family. Where it is undisturbed it is likely to bully any intruder, even large birds such as Egyptian geese, if they do not defy its challenges. It can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands. It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season.
The red-knobbed coot is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing. It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed (to escape a rival, for example, or to dispute possession of a choice morsel). It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.
The red-knobbed coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds. Its main food in most waters however comprises various waterweeds such as species of Potamogeton for which it commonly dives.
This is a noisy bird during mating, but its vocalisations are quite different from the Eurasian coot.  It gives a fast kerrre like the little crake, a harsh ka-haa and a grunting hoot "oot oot" that suggests that the name "coot" might be onomatopoeia, but inspection of the etymology of "coot" fairly decisively negates any such suggestion.


Rails by Taylor and van Perlo, ISBN 90-74345-20-4
Forsman, Dick (1991) Aspects of identification of Crested Coot Dutch Birding 13(4): 121-25


Fumaria officinalis, the common fumitory, drug fumitory or earth smoke, is a herbaceous annual flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It is the most common species of the genus Fumaria in Western and Central Europe.


It is an herbaceous annual plant that grows weakly erect and scrambling, with stalks about 10–50 cm (3.9–19.7 in) long. It has slender green leaves. Its pink 7–9 mm (0.28–0.35 in) flowers appear from April to October in the northern hemisphere, or May to September in the UK. They are two lipped and spurred, with sepals running a quarter the length of the petals. The plant commonly has more than 20 and up to 60 flowers per spike. The fruit is an achene containing one seed. It is approximately globular, slightly wider than high and with an apical notch. It contains alkaloids, potassium salts, and tannins and is also a source of fumaric acid.


It was first formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication 'Species Plantarum' on page 700, in 1753.
There are 2 known subspecies:
Fumaria officinalis subsp. cilicica (Hausskn.) Lidén
Fumaria officinalis subsp. wirtgenii (Koch) Arcang.


The "smoky" or "fumy" origin of its name comes from the translucent color of its flowers, giving them the appearance of smoke or of hanging in smoke, and the slightly gray-blue haze color of its foliage, also resembling smoke coming from the ground, especially after morning dew.
The plant was already called fūmus terrae (smoke of the earth) in the early 13th century, and two thousand years ago, Dioscorides wrote in De Materia Medica (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς) and Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia that rubbing the eyes with the sap or latex of the plant causes tears, like acrid smoke (fūmus) does to the eyes.
Its Greek name is kapnos (καπνός, for smoke) and the name fumewort now applies mostly to the genus Corydalis, especially the similar looking Corydalis solida (formerly Fumaria bulbosa), which was thought to belong to the same genus as fumitory.


It is native to temperate regions of North Africa, Europe and parts of Western Asia.


It is found in North Africa, within Macaronesia, Canary Islands, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Within Western Asia it is found in the Caucasus, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Siberia, Syria and Turkey. In eastern Europe, it is found within Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. In middle Europe, it is in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. In northern Europe, in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom. In southeastern Europe, within Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
Also in southwestern Europe, it is found in France, Portugal and Spain.


Usage of this plant as medicine began in Europe in the late Middle Ages, although it was known since antiquity. In 17th century Europe it was publicised as good for the eyes (due to remarks by Pliny and later Olivier de Serres that rubbing its juice in one's eyes caused excessive tearing). The most common traditional uses were as a digestive aid and a diuretic, but various folk traditions throughout Europe ascribed to it a multitude of uses: constipation, cystitis, arteriosclerosis, rheumatism, arthritis, as a blood purifier, for hypoglycaemia, infections, and possibly to cleanse the kidneys. In Sicily and perhaps elsewhere it was used to treat skin blemishes, and in Britain into the modern era as an eyewash to treat conjunctivitis.
Since 1963 it has been marketed as a herbal medicine in France. As of 2011 herbal products made from this plant are legally sold in various forms in Austria, Germany, France and Spain. Products may be legally sold in the British market (it is on the British General Sales List), although no products were sold there as of 2011. In the European Union as a whole marketing of the plant is not necessarily legal: it has been rejected from the Community List by the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products due to the lack of toxicology studies. Products in France and Spain are marketed as a digestive (said to work by increasing bile flow), in Austria it is sold for treatment of dyskinesia of the biliary duct, in Germany it is simply sold as an herbal tea.
There is some evidence from animal models that it modifies abnormal bile flow, although it has no effect on normal choleresis. An antispasmodic effect on the upper digestive tract in vitro and in animal studies is considered sufficiently documented. The efficacy of the herbal products in humans is considered plausible but yet unproven in clinical studies. Numerous clinical studies in its amphocholeretic uses in humans have demonstrated the tolerability and safety of dosages used, but there has only been one small double-blind trial with placebos which was inconclusive regarding efficacy. A larger double-blind trial with placebos investigating and comparing its use in the treatment of pain and distension due to irritable bowel syndrome with Curcuma demonstrated no statistically significant differences between treatment groups (although use of either herb appeared to slightly worsen either distension or pain respectively, compared to placebo use). A number of other potential effects or uses for the plant and its major alkaloid protopine have been researched in vitro or in animal models.
Howard (1987) warns that fumitory is poisonous and should only be used "under the direction of a medical herbalist", but in Europe, no safety problems with its use have been recorded as of 2011. Large doses of protopine in animal models causes excitation and convulsions. Thorough toxicological research on this plant has not been conducted as of 2011. There have been no studies on its safety or effect on pregnant woman, children or elderly.


The plant contains isoquinoline alkaloids protopine and allocryptopine. Both protopine and allocryptopine increased CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 mRNA levels in human hepatocyte cells. The use of products containing protopine and/or allocryptopine may be considered safe in terms of possible induction of CYP1A enzymes.


Funaria hygrometrica, the bonfire moss or common cord-moss, is a type of water moss which grows on shady, moist soil. It can also be found on moist walls and the crevices of rocks and places where recent fires have taken place.
The plant body is green, soft and upright, about half an inch tall. The rhizoids present in this species are multi-cellular and branched. They have oblique septa. The main axis of the plant, which is upright, bears a set of spirally arranged, sessile leaves having a clearly distinguishable midrib.
At the apex of the main plant axis, the antheridium is borne. This is the male part of the shoot. A lateral branch from the main plant axis bears the female shoot archegonium at its meristem. Experiments have shown that F. hygrometrica can withstand water with 90% heavy water.


The pale-legged hornero (Furnarius leucopus) is a species of bird in the family Furnariidae. It includes the Pacific hornero (F. leucopus cinnamomeus) and the Caribbean hornero (F. leucopus longirostris), which often are considered separate species.
It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela. It occurs in a wide range of wooded habitats, especially near water.


The rufous hornero (Furnarius rufus) is a medium-sized ovenbird in the family Furnariidae. It occurs in eastern South America, and is the national bird of Argentina and Uruguay. Also known as the red ovenbird, it is common in savannas, second-growth scrub, pastures and agricultural land and is synanthropic. Its range includes midwestern, southeastern and southern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern and central Argentina, extending as far south as northern Patagonia. The species is most closely related to the crested hornero of Paraguay and Argentina. There are four accepted subspecies.
The rufous hornero is medium-sized with a square tail and very slightly decurved bill. The plumage is overall reddish brown with a dull brown crown and a whitish throat. Sexes are alike and juvenile birds are slightly paler below (probably because they are cleaner). Rufous horneros feed on insects and other arthropods obtained by foraging on the ground while walking. They sometimes feed on scraps such as bread crumbs. Songs in the rufous hornero are sexually distinct. The rapid trill that is usually heard as part of the duet is faster in the male, slower in the female, and both beat their wings at their sides while singing and the wings beat at the same rate as their trill. Thus, while watching an observer may identify the sex by how fast their wings beat while singing.


Predators of adult and young rufous horneros include birds of prey such as the black-chested buzzard-eagle Buteo melanoleucus, small mammals, domestic cats, and a number of species of snakes and possibly lizards. However, its covered nest probably reduces predation risk.


The rufous hornero breeds in the austral summer, laying eggs between August and December, raising nestlings soon after, and the young may stay in their natal territory until the following breeding season. The species is monogamous and the pair bond is long term, sometimes for life. The nest of the species is typical for the genus, a large thick clay "oven" placed on a tree, or man made structures such as fenceposts, telephone poles or buildings. Pairs remain together throughout the year and will work on the nest during that time; nests can be constructed in as little as 5 days but usually take longer, occasionally months, to complete. A clutch generally contains two to four eggs. The eggs are laid every second day and incubated for 14–18 days. Chicks are fed for 23–26 days before fledging; young birds remain in the parental territory for around 6 months after fledging and sometimes until the following breeding season. Both parents incubate eggs and feed the young. Horneros may or may not reuse nests, therefore it is quite common to see several nests close to each other (or even atop older nests) at the same nesting site. However, a formerly unused nest may be repaired for a new breeding season.


The rufous hornero has benefited from human changes to the environment and many live in highly modified habitat, such as city suburbs. In turn abandoned hornero nests may be of benefit to various other species of birds that nest in its unused "ovens". The saffron finch is one species that commonly nests in old ovenbird nests. The rufous hornero is a familiar sight over much of its range and has been adopted as the national bird of Argentina and Uruguay. It is not threatened by human activities and is listed as least concern by the IUCN.


The first notes taken on the species were made by Philibert Commerson in 1767, from a specimen obtained at Barragán cove during Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition. Commerson named the bird as Turdus fulvus and his notes were later published by Georges Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle in 1779. However, the rufous hornero was first scientifically described, as Merops rufus, by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae published in 1788.
In 1816, Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot established the genus Furnarius in his Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire and included the rufous hornero on it, although Vieillot did not directly rename the rufous hornero as Furnarius rufus. Its current scientific name was used for the first time in ornithology by John Gould in his Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle in 1841.
Nowadays the rufous hornero integrates the genus Furnarius with other five species. They are all native to South America and build mud nests that resemble old wood-fired ovens. Its closest relative is the crested hornero, which is considered as its sister species due to similar behavior and plumage pattern.
The derivation of the current genus name, Furnarius, is from the Latin furnus, meaning "an oven". The Spanish word "hornero" similarly comes from horno, meaning "oven". Its specific epithet comes from the Latin rufum, meaning "red" or "reddish". It is also known as the red ovenbird.


Five subspecies of the rufous hornero are generally recognized, based upon plumage and size:
F. r. rufus, the nominate subspecies, described by Gmelin in 1788. It is found in Uruguay to central Argentina and southern Brazil.
F. r. albogularis, described as Figulus albogularis by von Spix in his Avium species novae  in 1824.  It is found in southeast Brazil, from the states of Goiás and Bahia to São Paulo.
F. r. commersoni, described as Furnarius commersoni by von Pelzeln in his Zur Ornithologie Brasiliens in 1868. It is found in western Brazil and eastern Bolivia.
F. r. paraguayae, described by Cherrie & Reichenberger in the American Museum Novitates journal in 1921. It is found in Paraguay and northern Argentina.
F. r. schuhmacheri, described by Laubmann in his Verhandlungen der Ornithologischen Gesellschaft in Bayern in 1933. It is found in southern Bolivia.


The rufous hornero is a medium-sized ovenbird at 18 to 20 centimetres (7–8 in) and 31 to 58 grams (1.1–2.05 oz), with males being heavier. It has a slender and slightly decurved bill suited to eating insects, which is horn-coloured with a length of 2.5 centimetres (1.0 in). Wings length is 10.2 centimetres (4 in), with males generally being larger. The tail is short at  7.1 centimetres (2.8 in). The measurements of the species may differ due to the Bergmann's rule.
The sexes are not dimorphic in their plumage. It has a rufous brown back and pale buffy brown underparts. Its wings are pale brown except for the flight feathers which are blackish with cinnamon wingbars.


Gaillardia aristata is a North American species of flowering plant in the sunflower family, known by the common names common blanketflower and common gaillardia. This perennial wildflower is widespread across much of North America, from Yukon east to Québec and south as far as California, Arizona, Illinois, and Connecticut, although it may be naturalized rather than native in parts of that range. It is also naturalized in scattered locations in Europe, Australia, and South America.


Gaillardia aristata grows in many habitats such as plains, prairies, and meadows. It is a perennial herb reaching maximum heights of anywhere between 20–92 cm (8–36 in). It has lance-shaped leaves near the base and several erect, naked stems holding the flowers.
Each flower head has a center of about 12 brownish or reddish purple disc florets and a fringe of ray florets which are about 10–30 mm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) long and yellow to reddish with dark bases. Flowers bloom July to September.
The fruit is a stout, hairy achene which may be over 10 mm (3⁄8 in) long including the long, spiky pappus.


Some Plateau Indian tribes used blanketflower to treat wounds and settle fevers.
Gaillardia aristata is a widely cultivated ornamental plant, used as a perennial garden flower.


Galax, the wandplant, wandflower, or beetleweed, is a genus in the flowering plant family Diapensiaceae, containing a single species, Galax urceolata (syn. G. rotundifolia, G. aphylla). It is native to the southeastern United States from Massachusetts and New York south to northern Alabama, growing mainly in the Appalachian Mountains at altitudes of up to 1,500 m, where it grows in shaded places in forests. Galax urceolata can occur at multiple ploidy levels, an individual may be a diploid (2x), triploid (3x), or autotetraploid (4x) (autopolyploid). The cytotypes are neither morphologically nor geographically distinct, though there are slight climatic differences between the diploid and autotetraploid types. Outcrossing is likely to occur among cytoypes as well.


It is an evergreen herbaceous perennial plant growing to 30–45 cm (rarely 75 cm) tall, with a rosette of leathery leaves, which turn brown during winter. The leaves are a rounded cardioid (heart) shape, 2.5–7.5 cm diameter, rarely up to 15 cm, with a serrated margin with rounded "teeth". The flowers are produced in late spring to early summer, white in color and on a single spike-like raceme 15–25 cm long on top of a 20–50 cm tall stem. Each individual flower has five petals, and is up to 4 mm (5⁄32 in) in diameter. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous seeds.


The genus name Galax comes from the Greek word "gala" which means "milk", describing Galax's white flowers.
Around 1730, Galax was collected by John Clayton, due to his friendship with Mark Catesby, an English naturalist who had just arrived in Virginia. Based on Catesby's recommendation, Clayton ended up sending his specimens to Jan Frederik Gronovius, a dutch botanist. In 1739, Gronovius published The Flora of Virginia, where  "Anonymos or Belvedere" is the plant long known as Galax aphylla. Clayton provided Gronovius with four samples, all which were destroyed in a series of unfortunate events.
Many years later, John Mitchell assumed he had collected Galax aphylla and took a ship to bring the specimen to Carl Linnaeus; however, his boat was attacked by pirates, who took all the specimens as part of their plunder. Prior to the voyage, he had sent descriptions of all the specimens to colleagues in Europe. When he arrived there, he was able to procure one of his descriptions for Linnaeus. Despite Linnaeus never seeing this specimen of “Galax”, he agreed with Mitchell’s description; however, the specimen described was, in fact, "Nymophila", thus invalidating the name Galax aphylla  with respect to the International Code of Nomenclature of Plants.
Between March 1803 and September 1804, Galax was rediscovered and renamed five times. Any time the new name referred to Mitchell's description, it was invalidated. The name that is considered valid, since it pre-dates all other names and follows the rules of nomenclature, was Pyrola urceolata Poir., named by Jean Louis Marie Poiret. Despite the validity of this name, Pyrola never caught on. Around this time Galax urceolata was cultivated in Europe; many descriptions came from the cultivated line (presumably sent by John Clayton), and the plant referred to as "Galax" was gaining popularity. In 1972, Brummitt argued that the genus name should remain Galax, but the specific epithet should be urceolata; therefore, he renamed it Galax urceolata (Poir.) Brummitt.
The type specimen was collected by André Michaux, who had his horses stolen on the journey to collect Galax with John Clayton. Since the prior specimens had been destroyed and the name invalidated, this new specimen would be considered the holotype.


The leaves are often harvested for the floristry industry; concern has been expressed over excessive exploitation, and collection is now restricted in many areas. It has also been used in herbalism to treat cuts and kidney ailments. It is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant in gardens.
The independent city of Galax, Virginia, is named after this plant.


The rufous-tailed jacamar (Galbula ruficauda) is a near-passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World in southern Mexico, Central America and South America as far south as southern Brazil and Ecuador.


Like other jacamars they are elegant, brightly coloured birds with long bills and tails. The rufous-tailed jacamar is typically 25 centimetres (10 in) long with a 5 centimetres (2 in) long black bill. The subspecies G. r. brevirostris has, as its name implies, a shorter bill. This bird is metallic green above, and the underparts are mainly orange, including the undertail, but there is a green breast band. Sexes differ in that the male has a white throat, and the female a buff throat; she also tends to have paler underparts. The race G. r. pallens has a copper-coloured back in both sexes.


The rufous-tailed jacamar's call is a sharp pee-op, and the song a high thin peeo-pee-peeo-pee-pe-pe, ending in a trill.


Galeopsis tetrahit, the common hemp-nettle or brittlestem hempnettle, is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe and northwestern Asia.
It is a herbaceous annual plant growing to 1 m tall; it is a pioneer species and thrives on disturbed sites or roadsides. The plant looks like mint but is taller. The stems have reflexed hairs and swollen nodes. In cross section, the stem is square. The leaves are rhombic to elliptic, with coarsely to bluntly serrate edges. The flowers are multicoloured, with purple, pink, or white areas; diminutive, bilateral and snapdragon-like, and are mostly visited by bumblebees.
The species is considered by some authorities to have arisen as a natural hybrid between Galeopsis pubescens and Galeopsis speciosa.


Common hemp-nettle is an erect annual plant and grows to a height of about 20 to 70 cm (8 to 28 in). The stem branches occasionally and is squarish and hairy, with glandular hairs on the upper part of the plant. The nodes are swollen and widely spaced and the pale green, stalked leaves are in opposite pairs. The leaf blades are hairy and are ovate with a long tapered tip and with regular large teeth on the margin. The inflorescence forms a terminal spike and is composed of whorls of pinkish flowers with dark markings on the lower lip. The calyx has five sharp-pointed lobes and the corolla forms a two-lipped flower about 15 to 20 mm (0.6 to 0.8 in) long with a fused tube. The upper lip of each flower is convex with dense, glandular hairs and the lower lip is three-lobed, the central lobe being the largest, squarish with a flat or rounded edge. There are four stamens, two long and two short, the gynoecium has two fused carpels and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp. The plant has a slightly unpleasant smell.


Common hemp-nettle is native to Europe and northwestern Asia. Its typical habitat is rough ground, arable land, logging clearances and waste places. It spreads readily as its sharp calyces adhere to clothing and animal pelts.


The crested lark (Galerida cristata) is a species of lark widespread across Eurasia and northern Africa. It is a non-migratory bird, but can occasionally be found as a vagrant in Great Britain.


The crested lark was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It was classified in the genus Alauda until German naturalist Friedrich Boie placed it in the new genus Galerida in 1821. Colin Harrison recommended lumping members of Galerida and Lullula back into Alauda in 1865 due to a lack of defining characteristics. The current scientific name is derived from Latin. Galerida was the name for a lark with a crest, from galerum, "cap", and cristata means "crested". Alban Guillaumet and colleagues noted the distinctiveness of populations from the Maghreb - birds in the dryer parts of Morocco and Tunisia had longer bills while those in more coastal northern parts had shorter bills typical of the European subspecies. The authors sampled the mitochondrial DNA and found they were distinct genetically.
Formerly, the Maghreb lark was considered as a subspecies of the crested lark.


Thirty-three subspecies are recognized:
Iberian crested lark (G. c. pallida) - Brehm, CL, 1858: Found in Portugal and Spain
Central European crested lark (G. c. cristata) - Linnaeus, 1758: Found from southern Scandinavia and France east to Ukraine and Hungary
West Italian crested lark (G. c. neumanni) - Hilgert, 1907: Found in west-central Italy
Greecian crested lark (G. c. meridionalis) - Brehm, CL, 1841: Originally described as a separate species. Found from eastern Croatia to central Greece and western Turkey
Cyprus crested lark (G. c. cypriaca) - Bianchi, 1907: Found on Rhodes, Karpathos and Cyprus
South-east European crested lark (G. c. tenuirostris) - Brehm, CL, 1858: Found from eastern Hungary and Romania to southern Russia and Kazakhstan
Caucasian crested lark (G. c. caucasica) - Taczanowski, 1888: Found on eastern Aegean islands, northern Turkey and southern Caucasus
North-west Moroccan crested lark (G. c. kleinschmidti) - Erlanger, 1899: Found in north-western Morocco
West Moroccan crested lark (G. c. riggenbachi) - Hartert, 1902: Found in western Morocco
North Algerian crested lark (G. c. carthaginis) - Kleinschmidt, O & Hilgert, 1905: Found from north-eastern Morocco to northern Tunisia
North-east Algerian crested lark (G. c. arenicola) - Tristram, 1859: Originally described as a separate species. Found in north-eastern Algeria, southern Tunisia and north-western Libya
Cyrenaica crested lark (G. c. festae) - Hartert, 1922: Found in coastal north-eastern Libya
North-east Libyan crested lark (G. c. brachyura) - Tristram, 1865: Found from inland north-eastern Libya to southern Iraq and northern Arabia
South-east Algerian crested lark (G. c. helenae) - Lavauden, 1926: Found in south-eastern Algeria and south-western Libya
G. c. jordansi - Niethammer, 1955: Found in the Aïr Mountains (northern Niger)
Nile Delta crested lark (G. c. nigricans) - Brehm, CL, 1855: Originally described as a separate species. Found in the Nile Delta (northern Egypt)
Northern Nile Valley crested lark (G. c. maculata) - Brehm, CL, 1858: Found in central Egypt
Southern Nile Valley crested lark (G. c. halfae) - Nicoll, 1921: Found in southern Egypt and northern Sudan
Dongola crested lark (G. c. altirostris) - Brehm, CL, 1855: Originally described as a separate species. Found in eastern Sudan and Eritrea
Somali crested lark (G. c. somaliensis) - Reichenow, 1907: Found in southern Ethiopia, northern Somalia and northern Kenya
G. c. balsaci - Dekeyser & Villiers, 1950: Found in coastal Mauritania
Senegal crested lark (G. c. senegallensis) - (Statius Müller, PL, 1776): Originally described as a separate species in the genus Alauda. Found from Mauritania and Senegal to Niger
Nigerian crested lark (G. c. alexanderi) - Neumann, 1908: Found from northern Nigeria to western Sudan and north-eastern Central African Republic
Sudan crested lark (G. c. isabellina) - Bonaparte, 1850: Originally described as a separate species. Found in central Sudan
Coastal Levant crested lark (G. c. cinnamomina) - Hartert, 1904: Found in western Lebanon and north-western Israel
East Levant crested lark (G. c. zion) - Meinertzhagen, R, 1920: Found from southern Turkey to north-eastern Israel
Central Turkey crested lark (G. c. subtaurica) - (Kollibay, 1912): Found from central Turkey to south-western Turkmenistan and northern Iran
Kazakhstan crested lark or Baluchistan crested lark (G. c. magna) - Hume, 1871: Originally described as a separate species. Found from central Iran and central Turkmenistan to north-western Pakistan, Kazakhstan, southern Mongolia and north-western China
G. c. leautungensis - (R. Swinhoe, 1861): Originally described as a separate species in the genus Alauda. Found in north-eastern and eastern China
G. c. coreensis - Taczanowski, 1888: Found in Korea
Gilgit crested lark (G. c. lynesi) - Whistler, 1928: Found in northern Pakistan
Indian crested lark (G. c. chendoola) - (Franklin, 1831): Originally described as a separate species in the genus Alauda. Found from central and eastern Pakistan through western and northern India to southern Nepal


A fairly small lark, the crested lark is roughly the same size as a Eurasian skylark, but shorter overall and bulkier around the head and body, and very similar in appearance, with a height of 17 cm (6.7 in) and a wingspan of 29 to 38 cm (11 to 15 in), weighing between 37 and 55 g (1.3 and 1.9 oz). It is a small, brown bird which has a short tail with light brown outer feathers. Male and females have no real differences, but young crested larks have more spots on their back than their older counterparts. Its plumage is downy but sparse and appears whitish. The distinct crest from which the crested lark gets its name is conspicuous at all times but is more pronounced during territorial or courtship displays and when singing. In flight it shows reddish underwings. It shares many characteristics with the Thekla lark, with the main distinctions between the two being the beak, the Thekla's heavier black-brown streaks and its grey underwing, present in European specimens.


The crested lark breeds across most of temperate Eurasia from Portugal to north-eastern China and eastern India, and in Africa south to Niger. It is non-migratory, and the sedentary nature of this species is illustrated by the fact that it is only a very rare vagrant to Great Britain, despite breeding as close as northern France. While the bird is not commonly found in Scandinavia today, it could be found in Sweden until the 1990s, with sources reporting six individual birds in 1992 before becoming extirpated in Sweden in 1993. The birds have also been extirpated in several other European countries, including Norway (1972), Luxembourg (1973) and Switzerland (1980s).
This is a common bird of dry, open country and is often seen by roadsides or in cereal fields, although it is also found occupying small, sandy patches by railways, docks and airfields.


The crested lark is a songbird, and has a liquid, warbling song described onomatopoeically as a whee-whee-wheeoo or a twee-tee-too. It sings in flight from high in the sky, at roughly 30 to 60 m (98 to 197 ft) above the ground. The related Eurasian skylark exhibits similar behaviour but also sings during its ascent, whereas the crested lark sings either at altitude or on the ground.  Their flight pattern is an example of undulatory locomotion.


It nests in small depressions in the ground, often in wastelands and on the outskirts of towns. The nests are untidy structures composed primarily of dead grasses and roots. Three to five brown, finely speckled eggs, similar to those of the Eurasian skylark, are laid at a time and will hatch after 11–12 days.  As with most larks, the chicks leave the nest early, after about eight days and take flight after reaching 15–16 days old. Two broods will usually be raised each year.


Largely vegetarian birds, the crested lark primarily feeds on grains and seeds, such as oats, wheat and barley, but will also eat insects, particularly beetles, with food either being scavenged from the ground or dug up. Juvenile birds are fed by both parents, and generally leave the nest before they are able to fly to start foraging for food themselves.


Francis of Assisi considered the crested lark a bird of special significance, based on similarities he perceived between it and the life of the Friars Minor: its plain earth-coloured plumage and hood, its humility ("for it goes willingly along the wayside and finds a grain of corn for itself"), and its time spent in song.


Galinsoga parviflora is a herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae (daisy) family. It has several common names including guasca (Colombia), pacpa yuyo, paco yuyo and waskha (Peru), burrionera (Ecuador), albahaca silvestre and saetilla (Argentina), mielcilla (Costa Rica),  piojito (Oaxaca, Mexico), galinsoga (New Zealand),  gallant soldier,quickweed, and potato weed (United Kingdom, United States).


Galinsoga parviflora was brought from Peru to Kew Gardens in 1796, and later escaped to the wild in Great Britain and Ireland, being temporarily known as the 'Kew Weed'. The plant is named after the Spanish botanist Ignacio Mariano Martinez de Galinsoga. The species name 'parviflora' translates to 'having small flowers'. In Britain, its name Galinsoga is sometimes popularly rendered as "gallant soldiers", and then sometimes altered to "soldiers of the Queen". In Malawi, where the plant is naturalised, it is known as 'Mwamuna aligone' which translates to 'My husband is sleeping'.


Galinsoga parviflora grows to a height of 75 cm (30 in). It is a branched herb with opposite stalked leaves, toothed at the margins. The flowers are in small heads. The 3–8 white ray-florets are about 10 mm (1⁄2 in) long and 3-lobed. The central disc florets are yellow and tubular.


The species is native to South America, however it is widely naturalised in other countries. There are a few records of G. parviflora and G. ciliata in Northern Ireland. It has been naturalized elsewhere, including North America and Australasia.


In Colombia it is used as an herb in the soup ajiaco. It can also be used as an ingredient in leaf salads, although its subtle flavour, reminiscent of artichoke, mostly develops after being cooked. In eastern Africa, the plant is collected from the wild, and its leaves, stem and flowers eaten. It is also dried and ground into powder for use in soups.


Galinsoga quadriradiata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae which is known by several common names, including shaggy soldier, Peruvian daisy, hairy galinsoga. Its native home is apparently central Mexico, although it has become naturalized in many other places (North and South America, Europe, Japan, Philippines, the northern India, Nepal, etc.).


Galinsoga quadriradiata is an annual herb which varies in appearance. The main stem reaches anywhere from 10 to 60 centimeters (4-24 inches) in height and may branch or not. The petioled leaves are ovate and serrated are opposite branching, and covered coarse, hispid hairs. The roots form a fibrous root system.
The small flower heads are up to a centimeter wide (0.4 inches) but typically 2-3mm in diameter and have rounded center filled with many disc florets usually in a shade of bright yellow. There are typically five white ray florets widely spaced around the center, each an oval shape typically with three crenate teeth at the tip. Both the disk and ray florets are fertile producing an achene with a large pappus.
Galinsoga quadriradiata and its cousin Galinsoga parviflora are both edible and can be used as a pot herb or in salads although outside of their native range, they have not been widely adopted as a culinary item other than in China. G. parviflora is preferred as a salad green due to its non-hairy leaves. Care must be taken to not confuse them with the distantly related, and visually similar, Tridax procumbens, which is poisonous.


Galium album, the white bedstraw or hedge bedstraw, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae.


The stems can grow to at least 150 cm and are more or less erect with ascending branches. The stem is square in section with slight flanges. The plant is relatively hairless with shiny leaves and stem. Flowers are white or yellowish. The fruit are hairless.


Galium album is widespread over much of Europe, being native to a large region from Britain to Morocco, east to Turkey and Western Siberia. It is naturalized in Ireland, Scandinavia, Greenland and South Australia. It is found in pastures, grassy banks, etc., especially on dry calcareous soils. In Britain, G. album is local in lowland England, rare in the north and very rare in Scotland.


Four subspecies are currently (May 2014) recognized:
Galium album subsp. album  - most of the range of the species
Galium album subsp. prusense (K.Koch) Ehrend. & Krendl - Greece, Bulgaria, Crimea, Turkey, Caucasus
Galium album subsp. pycnotrichum (Heinr. Braun) Kren - from Poland south to Greece and Turkey
Galium album subsp. suberectum (Klokov) Michalk - Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine


Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed and sticky willy among others, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.


Galium aparine is known by a variety of common names in English. They include hitchhikers, cleavers, clivers, bedstraw, (small) goosegrass (not to be confused with other plants known as goosegrass), catchweed, stickyweed, sticky bob, stickybud, stickyback, sticky molly, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, stickyjack, stickeljack, grip grass, sticky grass, bobby buttons, whippysticks, and velcro plant.
Galium is Dioscorides’ name for the plant. It is derived from the Greek word for ‘milk’, because the flowers of Galium verum were used to curdle milk in cheese making. Aparine is a name used by Theophrastus. It means 'clinging' or 'seizing', and is derived from the Greek απαίρω apairo 'lay hold of, seize', itself coming from από 'from' + αίρω 'pull to lift'.


The species is native to a wide region of Europe, North Africa and Asia from Britain and the Canary Islands to Japan. It is now naturalized throughout most of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, some oceanic islands and scattered locations in Africa. Whether it is native to North America is a question of some debate, but it is considered to be native there in most literature.   It is considered a noxious weed in many places.


For some people, skin contact with Galium aparine causes an unpleasant localized rash known as contact dermatitis.


Chemical constituents of Galium aparine include: iridoid glycosides such as asperulosidic acid and 10-deacetylasperulosidic acid; asperuloside; monotropein; aucubin; alkaloids such as caffeine; flavonoids; coumarins; organic acids such as citric acid and a red dye; phenolics such as phenolic acid; and anthraquinone derivatives such as the aldehyde nordamnacanthal (1,3-dihydroxy-anthraquinone-2-al).


Galium aparine is edible. The leaves and stems of the plant can be cooked as a leaf vegetable if gathered before the fruits appear. However, the numerous small hooks which cover the plant and give it its clinging nature can make it less palatable if eaten raw. Geese frequently consume G. aparine, hence one of its other common names, "goosegrass". Cleavers are in the same family as coffee. The fruits of cleavers have often been dried and roasted, and then used as a coffee substitute which contains less caffeine.


The plant can be found growing in hedges and waste places, limestone scree and as a garden weed.
G. aparine prefers moist soils and can exist in areas with poor drainage. It reportedly flourishes in heavy soils with above-average nitrogen and phosphorus content, and prefers soils with a pH value between 5.5 and 8.0. G. aparine is often found in post-fire plant communities in the United States, likely developing from onsite seed and therefore rendering controlled burns as an ineffective means of removing G. aparine in areas where it is considered a noxious weed.
Many insects feed on cleavers including aphids and spittlebugs.
The anthraquinone aldehyde nordamnacanthal (1,3-dihydroxy-anthraquinone-2-al) present in G. aparine has an antifeedant activity against Spodoptera litura, the Oriental leafworm moth, a species which is considered an agricultural pest. The mite Cecidophyes rouhollahi can be found on G. aparine.


Galium boreale or northern bedstraw is a perennial plant species of the Rubiaceae family. It is widespread over the temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America including most of Canada and the northern United States.


G. boreale is a perennial plant that dies back to the ground every winter. Established plants spread by rhizomes, creating colonies of new plants around the original one.
The squarish unbranched stems may grow between 20 centimetres (7.9 in) and 50 centimetres (20 in) tall. The leaves are attached directly to the stem in groups of four; spaced evenly like the spokes of a wheel. Leaves are longer than they are wide and have three prominent veins.
The small white flowers grow in a fairly showy panicles from the top of the stem. Each individual flower has 4 pointed segments that fold back from a fused tube enclosing the stamens and pistil. The lightly perfumed flowers have no calyx. Seeds are formed in pairs in dark fruits that may be covered in short hairs. The Latin specific epithet boreale means northern.


Galium boreale is found in sunny areas with dry to moist soil in forests, shrubs or grassland. It is native to the sub arctic and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. It is listed as endangered in the states of Maryland and Massachusetts.


Galium boreale is confirmed as a food plant for the larvae of Deilephila elpenor, D. porcellus, Epirrhoe galiata, Eupithecia subumbrata and Gandaritis pyraliata.


The species Galium boreale was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 based on the European population.
Galium foliis quaternis lanceolatis trinerviis glabris, caule erecto, seminibus hispidis.
— Carl Linnaeus, "Galium boreale", Species Plantarum (1753)

In 1818, Galium septentrionale Roem. & Schult. was described by Johann Jacob Roemer and Josef August Schultes based on the North American population. G. septentrionale was determined to be a synonym of G. boreale in 2003.
The genus Galium is a member of the family Rubiaceae.


Galium boreale is edible, with a sweet smell and taste, and can be eaten as a wild salad green. Varieties such as Galium boreale which do not contain the small hooks on the stem are not as palatable as the hooked varieties of Galium, like Galium aparine, but are important plants to remember for survival purposes. Galium boreale is known as "bedstraw" because it is used as fragrant stuffing for mattresses. There is also chemical evidence for its use in red textile dyes during the "Viking age" (year 800 to 1066).


Galium mollugo, common name hedge bedstraw or false baby's breath, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Rubiaceae. It shares the name hedge bedstraw with the related European species, Galium album.


Galium mollugo can reach a height of 15–100 centimetres (5.9–39.4 in). The stems are square in cross-section, more or less erect with ascending branches. Starting from the axils of leaves it has inflorescences of small white flowers with a diameter of about 1 to 1.5 cm, with four petals. The flowering period extends from May to September.


Galium mollugo commonly occurs in hedges, bushes, paths, meadows and slopes at an elevation up to 2,100 metres (6,900 ft) above sea level.


Galium mollugo is widely distributed in Europe and North Africa from Denmark, Portugal and Morocco east to the Altay region of Siberia and to the Caucasus. It is naturalized in the Russian Far East, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Greenland, Argentina, Uruguay, and much of North America. It has been reported from the Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevadas and the Appalachian Mountains as well as the Great Lakes region. It is classified as a noxious weed in New York, Pennsylvania and much of New England.


Galium triflorum (also known as cudweed, sweet-scented bedstraw, and fragrant bedstraw) is a herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread in northern Europe (Scandinavia, Switzerland, Russia, Baltic States), eastern Asia (Kamchatka, Japan, Korea, Guizhou, Sichuan, India, Nepal) and North America (from Alaska and Greenland south to Veracruz). The plant is considered a noxious weed in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Galium triflorum grows on the forest floor, spreading vegetatively by means of stolons. It has whorled leaves and single fruiting peduncles rising above basal rosettes. There are six bracts in a whorl below the peduncle. Each peduncle has three fruiting structures, each having a single fuzzy ball. Stems are square in cross-section. The entire vine does not feel very coarse, but it is rough enough to stick to clothing.
This species is sometimes confused with Galium odoratum, a species with traditional culinary uses.


Galium verum (lady's bedstraw or yellow bedstraw) is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread across most of Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia from Palestine, Lebanon and Turkey to Japan and Kamchatka. It is naturalized in Tasmania, New Zealand, Canada, and the northern half of the United States. It is considered a noxious weed in some places.
Galium verum is a low scrambling plant, with the stems growing to 60–120 centimetres (24–47 in) long, frequently rooting where they touch the ground. The leaves are 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) long and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) broad, shiny dark green, hairy underneath, borne in whorls of 8–12. The flowers are 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) in diameter, yellow, and produced in dense clusters. This species is sometimes confused with Galium odoratum, a species with traditional culinary uses.


In medieval Europe, the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses, as the coumarin scent of the plants acts as a flea repellant. The flowers were also used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture (which gives the plant its name, from the Greek word γάλα, gala 'milk') and, in Gloucestershire, to colour the cheese double Gloucester.
The plant is also used to make red madder-like and yellow dyes.
In Denmark, the plant (known locally as gul snerre) is traditionally used to infuse spirits, making the uniquely Danish drink bjæsk.


Frigg was the goddess of married women, in Norse mythology. She helped women give birth to children, and as Scandinavians used the plant lady's bedstraw (Galium verum) as a sedative, they called it Frigg's grass.
In Romanian folklore, it is called sânziana and it is linked to the Sânziene fairies and their festival on June 24.
In Gaelic mythology, the hero Cú Chulainn, who suffered fits of rage during battle, would take a tea of this plant to calm his frenzy. The plant is known as lus chneas Chù-Chulainn 'the herb of Cú Chulainn's skin' in Scottish Gaelic, and in the 14th/15th centuries it occurred with the Irish name Bolad cneise con Culainn ‘the smell of Cú Chulainn’s skin’ (NLI G 11 182b2).


The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World.
The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland over the north of the British Isles and northern Fennoscandia, where it occurs at around 70°N, as well as through European Russia and Siberia. Here it is mostly on the northern edge of the Taiga zone at 71°N, but reaches 74°N on the east coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. In the east it extends to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Bering Island and the Kuril Islands, The southern boundary of the distribution area in Europe runs through northern Portugal, central France, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, with populations in the west being only very scattered. In Asia, the distribution extends south to northern Turkestan, locally to Afghanistan and the Middle East, through the Altai and further to Manchuria and Ussuri. It is migratory, with European birds wintering in southern and western Europe and Africa (south to the Equator), and Asian migrants moving to tropical southern Asia. The North American Wilson's snipe was previously considered the same species, and is listed as such in older field guides.


The common snipe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Scolopax gallinago. The species is now placed with 17 other snipe in the genus Gallinago that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The name gallinago is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling".
Two subspecies are recognised:
G. g. faeroeensis (Brehm, CL, 1831) – breeds in Iceland, Faroe Islands, Orkney and Shetland Islands; non-breeding in British Isles
G. g. gallinago (Linnaeus, 1758) – breeds in central, north Europe and Asia; non-breeding in west Europe, Africa, Indonesia and Japan


Adults are 25–27 cm (9.8–10.6 in) in length with a 44–47 cm (17–19 in) wingspan and a weight of 80–140 g (2.8–4.9 oz) (up to 180 g (6.3 oz) pre-migration). They have short greenish-grey legs and a very long (5.5–7 cm (2.2–2.8 in)) straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown with straw-yellow stripes on top and pale underneath. They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it. The wings are pointed.
The common snipe is the most widespread of several similar snipes. It most closely resembles the Wilson's snipe (G. delicata) of North America, which was until recently considered to be a subspecies — G. g. delicata — of the common snipe. They differ in the number of tail feathers, with seven pairs in G. gallinago and eight pairs in G. delicata; the North American species also has a slightly thinner white trailing edge to the wings (the white is mostly on the tips of the secondaries). Both species breed in the Aleutian Islands. It is also very similar to the pin-tailed snipe (G. stenura) and Swinhoe's snipe (G. megala) of eastern Asia; identification of these species there is complex.
The subspecies faeroeensis is normally is more richly toned on the breast, its upperparts and the head than the gallinago.


The  common snipe is a well camouflaged bird, it is usually shy and conceals itself close to ground vegetation and flushes only when approached closely. When flushed, they utter a sharp note that sounds like scape, scape and fly off in a series of aerial zig-zags to confuse predators. They forage in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and earthworms, also some plant material.
The male performs "winnowing" display during courtship, flying high in circles and then taking shallow dives to produce a "drumming" sound by vibrating its tail feathers. This sound has been compared by others to the bleating of a sheep or goat; hence in many languages the snipe is known by names signifying "flying goat", "heaven's ram", as in Scotland by "heather-bleater" and in Finnish the name taivaanvuohi, "sky goat".
Philip Manson-Bahr is credited with unravelling the mystery of how the snipe creates that unusual breathy sound which is unlike other birdsong. He worked out that the sound was created by placing out two tail feathers at 90 degrees to the direction of flight. When diving these feathers create this unusual sound. He demonstrated this in front of the British Ornithologists Union by inserting two snipe feathers into a cork which he then whirled around his head on a string.
Wing shape does not differ between sedentary and migratory common snipe, suggesting that social selection influences wing shape given this species aerial displays during courtship.


Common snipe nest in a well-hidden location on the ground, laying four eggs of a dark olive colour, blotched and spotted with rich brown, which are incubated by the female for 18–21 days. The freshly hatched young are covered in dark maroon down, variegated with black, white and buff. The young are cared for by both parents, each parent looking after half the brood, with fledging in 10–20 days.


The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a bird species in the rail family and is one of the eight extant species in the moorhen genus. It occurs in India, Australia, New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia. It is often confused with the purple swamphen and the Eurasian coot due to similar appearance and overlapping distributions. They often live alongside birds in the same genus, such as the Tasmanian nativehen and the common moorhen.


John Gould described the dusky moorhen in 1846 from a skin collected along the Murray River in South Australia. Its species name is derived from the Latin tenebrosa "dark". Charles Lucien Bonaparte described Gallinula haematopus in 1856, but this is now a nomen nudum. Gregory Mathews described two subspecies that have been synonymized—magnirostris from Western Australia and subfrontata from New South Wales.
Three subspecies are recognised: subspecies frontata from southeastern Borneo, the Sunda Islands, Timor and western New Guinea, subspecies neumannii from northern New Guinea, and the nominate subspecies from Australia.
Common names include dusky moorhen, black gallinule, black moorhen and waterhen.


The dusky moorhen is a medium size bird, slightly smaller than the purple swamphen. The New Guinea birds are smaller, at 25–32 centimetres (9.8–12.6 in) in length, than the Australian race 34–38 centimetres (13–15 in). Adult males generally weigh on average around 570 grams and adult females 493 grams. The adult dusky moorhen is mainly dark grey-black, with a browner tinge to the upper parts. It has a red frontal shield and yellow-tipped red bill like its Eurasian relative, but lacks the white flank line shown by common moorhen, and has orange-yellow rather than yellow legs. The Australian subspecies is larger and pager than both other subspecies.
During autumn and winter, the colour of the frontal shield grows duller in females and young males. During the warmer months, in the breeding season, the shield grows brighter again in both sexes.


The dusky moorhen feeds both on land and in water. Its diet consists of seeds, the tips of shrubs and grasses, algae, fruits, molluscs, and other invertebrates. It will also consume carrion, bread and droppings from birds including gulls and ducks. The chicks are fed mostly on annelid worms and molluscs, with plant matter gradually being given in increasing proportions by the parents as the young mature.