This is a lovely little wildflower that spreads to form close-knit mats of leaves in dry, sunny spots.

Each plant has a small rosette of hairy ragged leaves that are dark green above but whitish and hairy underneath. They’re rounded at the tips and not toothed. The flowers are carried on long stems from the centre of these rosettes, up to 30cm tall. Each narrow and tightly packed bloom – one per stem – is like a dandelion but a paler lemon yellow in colour. They are followed by fluffy seed heads.

Distribution

Found throughout the UK, but rarer in north-west Scotland.

Habitat

Grows in dry grassy places like meadows, pastures, verges, lawns, heaths and dunes as well as waste ground.

Best time to see

When in flower, from May to August.

How to Spot

A common sight in spring, these bright yellow wild flowers can look quite exotic and the fluffy seed heads that follow are delicate and ethereal.

Look out for the bright yellow discs of tightly packed florets above a rosette of jaggedly toothed leaves. The flowers are followed by fluffy white seed heads. The plants are perennial and have a long tap root.

They are a huge number of Dandelion microspecies, in the UK, we have around 250. It’s believed that more than 40 of these are endemic species, and the majority are native.

Where to Spot

Dandelions mostly occur in disturbed habitats such as pastures, roadside verges, lawns, tracks, paths and waste ground. They are widespread and stable throughout the British Isles.

Despite being very common and widespread, this small speedwell is easily overlooked in lawns, meadows and pastures.

It spreads to form small patches of plain green hairless leaves that are carried in pairs and look similar to a large version of Thyme, hence the name.

The tips of the shoots rise up and turn into short flower spikes, bearing a succession of tiny white or pale blue flowers, 5-6mm across. Look closely and you’ll see that their uppermost petal is usually veined with darker blue. Only a few flowers open at a time and their pale colour can make this plant hard to spot.

Distribution

Found throughout the UK.

Habitat

Grows in a wide range of dry and damp places including grassy pastures, lawns and verges as well as woodland rides, heaths and cultivated land and waste ground.

Best time to see

When in flower, from March to October.

Often found in parks, banks and lawns – any type of grassland habitat – White Clover is the commonest of the clovers.

The White Clover flowerheads are ball-shaped cluster on a long stem, made up of tiny individual white and sometimes very pale pink flowers. The leaves have the archetypal ‘cloverleaf’ shape: three rounded leaflets often with a pale band.

Distribution

Common across the UK.

Habitat

Almost any grassy habitat.

Best time to see

Flowers from June to September.

‘The daisy is a happy flower, And comes at early spring, And brings with it the sunny hour, When bees are on the wing.’ – John Clare, “The Daisy”

A common sight across the UK, daisies are a delightful sign that spring has arrived and summer is on its way.

Each flower has a rosette of small, thin white petals surrounding a bright yellow centre. These are supported by a single stem which grows from a group of dark green rounded leaves. The petals can sometimes be tinged with pink.

Habitat

Short grassland and meadows.

Distribution

Very common. Found on grassy areas across the UK.

With its papery petals and delicate appearance, you might think the Harebell a rather fragile wild flower.

In fact, it’s incredibly tough and resilient. It needs to be given the environment it grows in: the harebell is a wild flower of dry, open places from the bare slopes of hills to the windswept coast.

How to spot it

Hanging blue bells on slender stalks. Grows 15-40cm tall. Roundish leaves at base, very narrow linear leaves up thin stem. (Source: the National Plant Monitoring Scheme Species Identification Guide).

Where it grows

Dry, grassy places. From mountain tops to sand dunes. Quite catholic in its choice of habitats: as happy on chalk grasslands as on acid heaths, and under tall bracken as on exposed cliff tops. However, damp is one condition that harebells cannot tolerate. It is distributed across the British Isles but not in the Channel Isles and most of south and east Ireland.

Best time to see

July to September.

Cultural info

• It is the County Flower of Dumfriesshire, Yorkshire and County Antrim.
• In the Language of Flowers it stands for childhood, grief, humility, and submission.

How’s it doing?

Generally stable although there have been some local declines at the edges of its range.

One of our most important meadow wild flowers.  It is hemi-parasitical on grasses and so weakens them, thereby giving other wild flowers a chance to compete and gradually establish themselves. A wildflower meadow hero!

How to spot it

An erect plant with longish stems without many leaves. When the yellow tubular flowers fade, the calyx behind them becomes a silvery sphere in which the seeds ripen – the rattle.

Where it grows

On nutrient-poor grasslands, including permanent pastures hay meadows and dunes. Also on roadsides and waste ground.

Best time to see

In flower from May to July

How’s it doing?

Yellow rattle underwent a marked decline in Britain throughout the 20th century, thought to be a result of changes in farming practices.

• How to grow Yellow Rattle

Known as ‘eggs and bacon’ because of the yellow and orange hue of the pea-like flowers, this is a food plant for several caterpillar species.

This is a low-creeping, perennial plant with clusters of deep, yellow flowers tinged with red. The leaves have five narrow oval leaflets and the lower two of these are bent back by the stem so that the leaves appear trefoil (3-lobed).

Although disagreeable to humans, Bird’s-foot-trefoil is an important source of food for other creatures. Pollinating insects find it a perfect source of nectar and it is used as a forage plant for livestock. The ‘Bird’s-foot’ of its name refers to the shape of its seed pods.

Where to find Bird’s-foot-trefoil

This is one of our most common meadow wild flowers and is found throughout the UK. It grows in meadows, roadsides and other grassland areas.

How’s it doing?

This wild flower is common through out the UK.