Signs of Spring in Lock-Down time (1)
With the country restricted to one exercise period outdoors per day, I was determined to make my daily walk productive! So, camera in hand (pocket) I have been looking in hedgerows and on road verges for the floral signs of spring. Here are some of my efforts in a sunny but rather windy first 14 days.
Well, you cannot think of spring without the primrose - can you? So my first two pictures are of that favourite spring flower, Primula vulgaris, the common primrose. It is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and parts of southwest Asia. One of my favourite sights is a carpet of primroses!
Blackthorne in profusion this year. This was a cluster in the hedge near Layham Church. There are many of us who say - "is it Blackthorn or Hawthorn"? Well, the answer is - Blackthorn blossoms before its leaves start to show, whereas hawthorn flowers after its leaves have emerged. This is one of the best tips for identifying the two species in spring. Blackthorn usually flowers first, from around March to June. Hawthorn flowers from around April to June.
Sorry about the quality of this shot but the wind did blow hard that day!
More Blackthorne - this time against a blue sky
Cowslips are one of the best known spring flowers. The cup-shaped, yellow flowers grow in nodding clusters on tall stalks. The leaves are oval with relatively wrinkled edges similar to the Primrose, but narrowing more abruptly into the stalk.They can be found in open woods, meadows, pastures and roadsides. Cowslips tend to favour rank grasses and scrub rather than amongst large numbers of spring-grazing sheep.
Its cultural history suggests that it was once as common as the Buttercup however, it suffered a decline between 1930 and 1980, mainly due to the loss of the grasslands where it grows. It's dramatic decline in the 1950s was due to the relentless advance of modern farming, particularly the ploughing of old grassland and the extension of the use of chemical herbicides. Fortunately, it is now showing signs of recovery and has begun to return to unsprayed verges and village greens as well as colonising the banks of new roads. It has probably been assisted by the scattering of wild flower seed mixtures. Vast masses have reappeared in Hertfordshire where grazing pressures have eased.
If you like fairy tales here is one for you: The nodding flowers suggests the bunch of keys which were the badge of St. Peter. One legend is that Peter was told that a duplicate key to Heaven had been made and therefore let his keys drop. The Cowslip broke from the ground where the keys fell.
Each to his own I suppose!
Common Blue and Sweet Violet
A low, creeping plant with fragrant flowers, usually blue-violet or white, the sweet violet has a long and rather romantic history in European and Asian folklore: the ancient Greeks first used it to make perfume and the Romans to make wine. Ancient Britons used it for cosmetics. Medieval French troubadours used it to represent constancy in their tales of chivalrous love.
Sweet violets leaves are broad and glossy and, like the stems, covered with fine hairs. Both flowers and leaves grow from a central tuft.
The story goes that Josephine threw Napoleon a posy of sweet violets when they first met. After he was defeated at Waterloo he was permitted to visit her grave one last time before he was sent to St Helena. He found sweet violets growing there and picked a few. Upon his death these were found in a locket around his neck.
Red Dead-nettle
Despite the family it's from, red dead-nettle does not sting. It displays dense clusters of pinky-red flowers in whorls around its stem, and can be found on disturbed ground, such as roadside verges. Looking similar to a stinging nettle, red dead-nettle is a downy annual with heart-shaped, toothed leaves, and reddish, square stems. Dense whorls of pinky-red, 'hooded' flowers appear up the stem. Rather pretty when seen in large numbers as this year.
White Dead nettle, like its cousin above, it does not sting and carpets the roadsides this time of year.
Its bright, yellow star-shaped flowers often blanket the ground this time of the year. For some reason, this year appears to have been a really good year for them - in our locality anyway. Or maybe it's because I have stood and stared on my daily walks during these strange times!
Each flower is about 3 cm across with eight to twelve petals. It has rosettes of glossy dark green heart-shaped mottled long-stalked leaves.
There's a flower that shall be mine, 'Tis the little Celandine.
William Wordsworth, "To the Small Celandine"
Spot the difference!.
The bottom one is Greater stitchwort, which has five white petals, each deeply notched and almost divided into two. Its green leaves are grass-like in appearance and its brittle stems are square. Greater stitchwort grows in woodland and along roadside verges, hedgerows and grassy banks. It has many other common names, including 'wedding cakes', 'Star-of-Bethlehem', 'daddy's-shirt-buttons' and 'Snapdragon' - the latter because its stems are brittle and easily break.
The top one is the Wood anemone which is a pretty spring flower of ancient woodlands, and is also planted in graveyards, parks and gardens. Its white flowers bloom between March and May, before the canopy becomes too dense, but its seeds are mostly infertile and it spreads slowly through the growth of its roots.
To finish - Stitchwort everywhere this year!
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