Bomb Weed

Rosebay willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium), usually called fireweed in America, is an opportunist that grows quickly on disturbed soil. It was known as "bomb weed" to a whole generation of urban Britons, because it was the first plant to sprout in bomb craters and buildings wrecked by the Blitz. Below, 1945 painting by R.G. Mathews, showing the site of the Shaftesbury Theatre.