"The Great Turf" (photo)
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was born and died in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), in southern Germany. The son of an immigrant Hungarian goldsmith, with whom he worked as a draughtsman for a while, Dürer was apprenticed to a painter and woodcut illustrator. He travelled as he learned his trade and was much affected by a short period spent in Italy. Influences from Italian masters such as Mantegna and Bellini soon became evident in his work.
Eventually, Dürer became one of the great masters of the Renaissance, famous for his religious works and portraits. See here, on the Webmuseum site, for more on him and his work.
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Dürer painted this famous and wonderfully-detailed watercolour of a piece of grassland, Das grosse Rasenstück ("The Great Turf") in 1503.
The grass species shown in it include Cock's Foot (Dactylis glomerata), Creeping Bent (Agrostis stolonifera) and Smooth Meadow Grass (Poa pratensis).
Also present are Daisy (Bellis perennis), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamedrys), Greater Plantain (Plantago major), Hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale) and Yarrow (Achillea millifolium)
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Most of these species have been found on the Wildlife Area (see the list, here). Of the three that have not, Germander Speedwell is the most likely to occur in the future. Hound's-tongue prefers chalky grassland and Smooth Meadow Grass is more often found on light soils.
The original picture hangs in The Albertina gallery, in Vienna, as does Dürer's equally well known study of a young hare (see the Webmuseum again.)