25 Sunday Feb 2024
Posted in wildflowers
I’m a bit late to the party but last Wednesday, 21 February, was Celandine Day, so named, according to the PlantLife website, ‘since 1795, when the renowned naturalist Gilbert White noted that the first celandines usually appeared in his Hampshire village of Selborne’. The date for the appearance of the first blooms has changed rather a lot in the intervening 229 years but these gorgeous wildflowers are still worth celebrating, I think.
10 Wednesday Jan 2024
Posted in wildflowers, winter
Phenology: noun; the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life (Oxford Dictionary).
In 2020 I was amazed to find my first Lesser celandine of the ‘spring’ flowering on 8 January (First Lesser celandine of 2020). This year, I was even more amazed to find my first even before the turning of the year, on 29 December, and then located another two flowers at a different site on my 1 January walk around Cardiff Bay. The way our changing climate is affecting plant phenology (i.e. how flowering times are influenced by seasonal weather variations) is just crazy.
18 Saturday Feb 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers
Tags
crocus, Lesser Celandine, primrose, raindrops on flowers, Snowdrops, Spring colour, spring flowers, Winter aconite
As the remnants of Storm Otto continue to blast and batter, a local meander turned up these glorious spring flowers, little beacons of colour and light on a grey winter’s day.
05 Sunday Feb 2023
Posted in flowers, wildflowers, winter
According to Flora Britannica, Spring messenger is a now defunct local name for Lesser celandine, and how wonderfully appropriate that name is. I’ve been watching several areas of Lesser celandine plants, wondering which would put forth the first flower but, in fact, this particular bloom was a complete surprise. I had to cross a narrow country road so a truck could complete its turn in to a tight driveway entrance and, as I was crossing, I spotted this tiny drop of sunshine beaming out from under a bush. Spring magic!
27 Sunday Mar 2022
Posted in wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Lesser Celandine, Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, Wood anemone, woodland wildflowers
Earlier this week I walked to one of my local woodlands to check what wildflowers were in bloom. The sparse scattering of Wild garlic flowers and just one plant with open Bluebells were a little disappointing but the carpet of lush plants under the trees held great promise of the beauty to come. The Wood anemones, Lesser celandine and Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage were a delight, as were the other wildflowers dotted here and there. I’m already looking forward to my next visit.
18 Sunday Apr 2021
Posted in spring, trees, walks, wildflowers
Tags
Bluebells, British wildflowers, Herb-Paris, Lesser Celandine, Moschatel, Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Wild garlic, Wood anemone, woodland wildflowers
I thought for this week’s Sunday wildflower post, I’d take you on a walk through parts of my local woodlands to show you some of the gorgeous plants a’blooming there at the moment. There are other wildflowers too, of course – Primroses, Violets, Dog’s-mercury, etc – but my video features Wild garlic, Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, Wood anemone, Herb-paris, Lesser celandine, Moschatel and Bluebells.
20 Sunday Dec 2020
Posted in wildflowers, winter
Tags
British wildflowers, Ficaria verna, Lesser Celandine, Lesser celandine flowering in December, winter wildflowers
So, no, it’s not spring. It’s only really the beginning of winter and, yet, in three different locations this week I’ve found Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) in flower. I think these glistening wildflowers do bloom quite early in the new year – they’re just even earlier than usual.
08 Sunday Mar 2020
Posted in nature, spring, wildflowers
Tags
#PavementPlants, #WildflowerHour, British wildflowers, Coltsfoot, Common cornsalad, Daisy, dandelion, Herb Robert, Lesser Celandine, primrose, Red dead-nettle, Shepherd's purse
Now that Spring has sprung, the folks who run #WildflowerHour on social media are issuing weekly challenges for followers to focus their searches around. This week it was #PavementPlants, searching for any plants in bloom that were growing in the cracks or along the edges of their local pavements. Challenges like this do mean you get some odd looks from people when you’re photographing your finds but I’m very used to that these days.
Here’s what I found: Coltsfoot (I love how tenacious these plants are – they were pushing up between the cracks in an old set of steps connecting two local streets); Common cornsalad; Daisy; Dandelion; Herb Robert; Lesser celandine; Primrose; Red dead-nettle; and Shepherd’s-purse.
09 Sunday Feb 2020
Posted in nature, spring, wildflowers
Tags
Alexanders, British wildflowers, Cherry plum blossom, crocus, Dog's mercury, Lesser Celandine, snowdrop, Spring blossom
This week’s wanderings produced sightings of two new wildflowers for the year, Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis), thriving under a hedgerow, and Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), an exceedingly common plant along the local coastal path.
I’d seen Crocuses already but this swathe, growing on a small green in the village of Michaelston-le-Pit, was a lilac delight.
Not a wildflower, but the local Cherry plum trees have burst into bloom this week. They say Spring to me!
Snowdrops are out en masse now, and more and more bursts of bright yellow Lesser celandines can be found, sprinkled along paths and in the local woodlands. So cheery!
09 Thursday Jan 2020
Posted in nature, wildflowers, winter
Not only did yesterday’s walk bring me the amazing sighting of a Mandarin duck, it also delighted me with this drop of golden sunlight come to earth, my first Lesser celandine flower of 2020.
earthstar 
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