A pretty woodland wildflower, with delicate white flowers that sit amongst distinctive citrus-green leaves. Once used in cooking for its lemony taste – but don’t eat too much raw as it can upset the stomach!

How to spot it

A low, creeping herb, with long-stalked, light green, trefoil-shaped leaves. The flowers have five white petals, veined in lilac or purple.

Where it grows

In woodland, on hedgerows, banks and in other moist, usually shaded, habitats throughout the British Isles.

Best time to see

In flower April to May, and sometimes a second time in summer.

How’s it doing?

Remaining widespread throughout the U.K., it is one of the few species able to survive the deep shade of conifer plantations.

Also known as ‘Ramsons’, snowy clusters of this pungent wild flower are a common sight in woods in the spring.

If you don’t immediately see it, you can usually smell it – wild garlic has a strong oniony scent that becomes stronger if you crush the leaves. It is a favourite with foragers but be sure not to eat the roots: eating them can have an unpleasant effect on the stomach.

Distribution

Common across the UK apart from north-east Scotland.

Habitat

Damp woodland

Best time to see

When in bloom, April to June.

A low, creeping plant, germander speedwell spreads with thin stems that creep over the surface of the ground, forming distinct mats or patches amongst the grass or hedgerow.

Its small leaves are triangular in shape and deeply toothed.

The beautiful bright blue flowers – which can be a centimetre across and have a white eye – are carried on small spikes in the axils of the leaves. Note that if the flowers are not on spikes but each one comes directly from the leaf axils then you might be looking at slender speedwell, Veronica filiformis instead.

Distribution

Found throughout the UK, but rare on the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.

Habitat

Generally grows in grassy places like meadows, pastures, verges and lawns, as well as in woods, hedgerows and waste ground.

Best time to see

When in flower, from March to July.

A pretty white wildflower also known as ‘Star-of-Bethlehem’ and ‘Wedding Cakes’, this star shaped spring flower is often found in hedgerows and verges. One of its local names is ‘popguns’ as its seeds fire off noisily when ripe.

How to spot it

White flowers, 20-30mm across, with five petals divided half way and twice as long as the sepals. Leaves narrow, with rough edges, stalkless, in pairs, each pair at right angles to the next. It also has a square stem. (National Plant Monitoring Scheme Species ID Guide)

Where it grows

Hedgerows and deciduous woodland.

Best time to see

April to June.

How’s it doing?

Stable.

Often arriving with the bluebell, the flowers of this early orchid make a handsome sight in spring.

The classic colour is magenta however occasionally white and pale pink flower spikes can be found. The leaves are are shiny with dark purple blotches. When first in bloom it has a wonderful scent, not dissimilar to Lily-of-the-valley tinged with blackcurrant but as the flowers fade, it starts to reek! As its name suggests, this is one of the first orchids to bloom, only the Early Spider-orchid flowers earlier.

Where to find Early Purple Orchid.

It adapts to a variety of habitats and can be found in hay meadows, woodland and often on roadside verges. It occurs mostly on non-acidic soils, and is also found in ancient woodland (especially coppice), chalk downland, grassy banks, limestone pavements and cliff-top grassland. It is widely distributed across the UK and Ireland.

How’s it doing?

The Early Purple Orchid was once a common plant, found in a variety of habitats. Sadly, these have also been places where urban development and modern farming methods have taken their toll. Although it is still found at sites throughout the UK it is by no means as abundant as it once was.

Often known as ‘lady’s smock,’ the pretty lilac flowers open around the time the cuckoo starts to call.

The flowers are usually veined with darker violet but in some areas pure white forms can be found. It is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the orange-tip and the green-veined white butterfly. In his Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey shows how the first full blooming of the Cuckooflower is a remarkably accurate predictor of the first hearing of the bird itself.

Where to find Cuckooflower

This wild flower is commonly found throughout the UK. It grows wherever there is damp ground – wet grassland, damp meadows, pond margins and along the banks of streams. It is may also found on road verges and in ditches.

How’s it doing?

Cuckooflower is commonly found in its preferred habitats.

Also often known as the ‘cuckoo pint’, a plant with shiny arrow shaped leaves often with dark spots.

The flower is designed to attract flies for pollination and club shaped spike releases a urine-like odour. Its fruit – a spike of bright orange berries – can be a common sight in woodlands in autumn. Like many wild berries these are toxic to humans so take care around them.

Where to find Lords-and-ladies

Lords-and-ladies are quite common throughout most of the UK.  Mostly in hedgerows and woodland areas. The exception is north and central Scotland.

Best time to see

It flowers in April and May, but is also a striking sight when its bright orange berries are in fruit in autumn.

An adornment of pastures and banks and a nostalgic symbol of the once flower-rich pastures of rural England.

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.

Where to find Cowslips.

They can be found in open woods, meadows, pastures and roadsides. They tend to favour rank grasses and scrub rather than amongst large numbers of spring-grazing sheep.

How’s it doing?

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.

This wild flower’s deep blue flower spikes may be found carpeting damp glades and meadows.

An evergreen perennial, it spreads by means of long, leafy runners. Spikes of purplish-blue flowers grow to from dense mats of dark green leaves with purple highlights. It is sometimes confused with Selfheal, however on this plant the flowers are arranged more tightly at the top of the stem.

Where to find Bugle

In damp woods, hedge banks and meadows throughout the UK.

How’s it doing?

Bugle continues to be common in its preferred habitats.

Its bell-like flowers with up-rolled tips carpet forest floors in the spring and its distinctive scent attracts bees beneath the trees.

The UK is home to about half of the world’s bluebell population. Perhaps its no surprise, then, that they are so popular here: when Plantlife asked the British public to vote for the “Nation’s Favourite Wildflower” it won by a significant margin both in England and the UK as a whole (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland opted for the Primrose (Primula vulgaris) instead.

Where to find Bluebell

Generally found in shady habitats, but also in more open ones in the damper west. It is associated with woodlands, also grows in hedgerows and grassland. Bluebells are woodland plants but, except perhaps in East Anglia, they do not need woods as much as humidity and continuity of habitat.

How’s it doing?

Although still common in Britain, bluebells are threatened locally by habitat destruction, collection from the wild, and from the escape of the Spanish bluebell from gardens and subsequent cross-breeding and loss of true native populations. The latter is a particular concern – during a survey around one in six bluebells found in broad-leaved woodland was a Spanish rather than native bluebell.

Bluebells are now protected from illegal commercial harvesting.