The wildflowers are here!

… and a Severn Bore postscript

With longer days and many trees in bloom, it’s truly beginning to feel like spring, April showers notwithstanding. Temperatures almost reached 22^oC in Essex last weekend, unlikely as that may seem today.

However, for many people wildflowers are the clearest sign of spring and bluebells are a particularly UK phenomenon, with more than half of those worldwide thought to grow here. As Sarah Raven, author of Wild Flowers says, ‘If we did not have bluebell woods, we would travel across the world to see them.’

According to the Woodland Trust, the average first flowering date for bluebells was 14 April in the twenty years to 2020. This estimate is based on sightings by volunteers contributing to their fabulous Nature’s Calendar project, which tracks the timing of natural events for a range of flowers, shrubs, trees, birds and amphibians, providing insights into the influences of weather and climate change.

This year, the first reported bluebell sightings were in early March in southeast England and they only reached northern England and southern Scotland in early April. For myself, I’ll hopefully be visiting a favourite spot in East Lothian early next month, hoping to see a display similar to that in the photograph below.

Bluebells in a wood in East Lothian in May 2023

From seed, bluebells take several years for the first flowers to appear and are easily damaged by trampling, so it is important to keep to paths and trails. Most parts of the plant are poisonous so again keep children and dogs well away. They are protected by law and it is an offence to pick, uproot or destroy plants or to sell or transport them for sale. From Spectacular Britain.

The best displays are of the native bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) rather than its less colourful Spanish cousin (Hyacinthoides hispanica), which also lacks the pleasant smell of the native type. Another way to tell them apart is that the Spanish type has a more upright stem with flowers all around rather than drooping to one side.

Spanish bluebells are of course just one of many examples of imported species that have spread from gardens and private collections into the wild. Some have become naturalized and enrich our lives such as snowdrops, but others cause serious ecological and environmental problems. They are then called invasive non-native species although in some countries have the more entertaining name of alien invaders, a term I first heard when working on a project in southern Africa.

In the plant world, two of the most notorious examples are Japanese knotweed, which can punch holes through tarmac and concrete, and Himalayan Balsam, which I’ve seen growing to twenty feet or more, crowding out local plant life. The UK government website currently lists 36 invasive plant species of special concern, along with other threats such as grey squirrels, which are perhaps the best known example in the mammal world.

On a more positive note, the following photo shows another species that you can find in the wild – the humble daffodil. Last month I spotted the natural-looking display in a local park and out of interest wondered if you could count them as wildflowers. However, Google Lens confirmed that they are cultivars and suggested that the almost white flowers have the slightly strange name of Narcissus ‘Ice Baby’.

A mix of yellow and white daffodils in a Scottish park, March 2024

Most of our daffodil species were introduced from Europe and North Africa but the UK does have its own native species (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). The Woodland Trust website says that this has pale yellow petals and long, thin and flat grey-green leaves and is mainly found in damp woodland and meadows in Wales and northwest and southwest England.

So, good luck if you are going out looking for bluebells and if you’d like to read more about wildflowers and invasive species I’ve included some suggestions below, including a couple on photographic techniques.

A Severn Bore postscript

Wildflowers of course aren’t the only natural spectacle to see in spring and this week I caught up with another interest: the Severn Bore. I may give more details in a future post but for now thought I’d just show a couple of photographs.

The first (below) was taken in the lower part of the estuary near Newnham where a reasonable wave formed, which several surfers caught as it went past:

Surfers riding the Severn Bore near Newnham, 10 April 2024

The second was from further upstream near the Severn Bore Inn, where the wave briefly gained enough strength to allow the unusual combination of a surfer, stand up paddleboarder and kayaker to ride along side by side.

The Severn Bore near the Severn Bore Inn, 10 April 2024

So a good morning out that I was well pleased with and as always photographs don’t fully convey the drama, noise and power of the incoming flow.

The Severn Bore occurs in most months of the year but the next really high tides will be in autumn.

Further reading

From the author

Invasive species – the following link is to a post I wrote on Victorian plant hunters and Alien Invaders several years ago:

https://meteowriter.com/invasive-plant-species/

Spectacular Britain, Kevin Sene, Bloomsbury, 2024. A chapter called ‘Wildflower Displays’ gives scientific insights and viewing tips for bluebells and snowdrops and information on other types of wildflowers and Japan’s Hanami cherry blossom festival.

Photographing snowdrops – the following post gives tips that may also be useful for other types of wildflower photography:

General

Woodland Trust – a link to the Nature’s Calendar website:

https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

The Magic of Colour – an insightful article on colour photography by Jon Sparks from his The Shattered Moon’s Substack site:

The Magic of Colour

Wild Flowers, Sarah Raven, photography by Jonathan Buckley, Bloomsbury, 2019.