This photo of bluebells in Moore meadow was taken on 4th May 2016 on our experimental guided evening nature walk. Simon Ginnaw, who led our first BWT nature walk in May 2016, told us that wild boars and badgers love to eat the sweet tasting bluebell roots. Wild boar are now extinct in most of England, and that is thought to be the reason why we have more bluebells here than other European countries where wild boar still roam. Did you know that bluebell roots used to be used to provide glue for bookbinding?
English bluebells bend over, whereas the Spanish ones that are beginning to invade our woods do not.
Not only bluebells at this time of year, but lots of other flowers as well. Lots of white dead-nettle, and at least six other little blue or pink flowers in the mint or labiate family (a short top petal, and a big, cup-shaped petal below). Dandelions, first buttercups, cuckoo pint, cuckoo flower, first of Queen Anne's Lace, a little chickweed-type plant, and some lovely greenish spurge in the ditch by the Royal Engineers' Bridge.
Not to mention all the trees in flower: cherry, apple, poplar, oak, ash. There is an old adage about the flowers of the ash and oak predicting the weather.
Ash before Oak
We're in for a Soak
Oak before Ash
We're in for a Splash.
Last year the oak flowered well before the ash, and it was very, very wet until the end of June. This year, some oak are flowering, some ash, and some doing nothing at all. I predict a drought and hose-pipe ban!