Woodland plant id's please

Peanuts3

We went to Devon this weekend, and walked through a beautiful wood on the coast. 

Have always wanted to try and re-create this, and now I have photographic inspiration. 

Could I have some help with plant id's though please ?

 This is a type of cow parsley but it had a pink tinge to the flowers and were huge. 

 

 This again looked like a cow parsley style but had green flowers ?

 

 Would this be a harts tongue fern?

 

 My inspiration, i can only try ! 

Dovefromabove

The top one is Hogweed (good for feeding pet rabbits) Heraculeum sphondylium (not the same as the poisonous Giant Hogweed)

The second is Alexanders (reputedly brought to Britain as a vegetable by Roman soldiers) Smyrnium olusatrum.  Still found growing where there were Roman settlements says a friend of mine who is an archaeologist.

The third is Harts Tongue fern - you were right 

And what a lovely woodland. 

yarrow2

That Hogweed looks lovely close up.  Isn't amazing how intricate and beautiful some of the plants we term 'weeds' are.  Especially some of the tiniest ones which can so irritate us in our gardens.

I ought to look this up - and I suppose I still can, but I'll bet that people on here will have good answers - around what era or whereabouts and when did the term 'weed' come into British vocabulary?  Did 'weed' always mean plants considered troublesome or was there some complex meaning which is not as how we generalise about a 'weed' these days?

I'm tempted to go off and look for anecdotes and fame and fables now.

landgirl100

There's a lovely book by Richard Mabey called Weeds: the story of outlaw plants. You can have a look here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weeds-Outlaw-Plants-Richard-Mabey-ebook/dp/B0043RTOUS/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400022238&sr=1-2&keywords=weeds 

Dovefromabove

The word 'weed' is an Old English one which meant 'grass' or 'herb', but in the Middle Ages its meaning changed to a plant that was growing where it was not wanted.  I suppose that was when farming really took off and a field full of barley would have been referred to as 'barley' whereas the other plants growing there unwanted would have been referred to generally as 'weeds' and that's how the meaning changed. 

I find etymology fascinating. 

Fairygirl

Hart's tongue fern is  a lovely plant, and I'd like to have it in this garden as I had it before. I never used to like ferns of any kind much, but I grew to love them after watching one slowly unfurl in a previous garden.  Cow parsley/hogweed flowers are  beautiful - that's a really good close up pic Peanuts.  I agree that it's funny how we can change our view of  plants -  including 'weeds' !

Dovefromabove

We've got Crested Hart's Tongue ferns alongside the path from the front to the back garden - they're the first plants I put in this garden