AWASH WITH COLOUR AND SCENT
It is easy to be distracted by masses of indigo bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, filling the wood with their rich scent, but there are many other wild flowers to observe in the woods and on its margin. Growing at the edges of arable fields are field pansies, Viola arvensis; common forget-me-not, Myosotis arvensis; and fingered speedwell, Veronica triphyllos, the latter found only in Yorkshire and Breckland, in Norfolk and Suffolk. Each bears tiny, beautiful flowers. The red dead nettle, Lamium purpureum, provides a valuable source of nectar for bumblebees, which can be seen frequenting its tiny fuchsia flowers. Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, with its fringe of thin yellow petals, is one of the earliest wild flowers to bloom. Among them are grasses, such as the Meadow foxtail, Alopecurus pratensis, which is a food plant for the Essex Skipper butterfly, Thymelicus lineola; and sweet vernal-grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, on which Brown and Skipper butterfly larvae feed. In the trees, starry white wood anemone, A. nemorosa, burst up. The early purple orchid, Orchis mascula, emerges, with a narrow cone of rich magenta flowers. Herb robert, Geranium robertianum, has small, pink, five-petalled flowers. Wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, is also in flower. At the close of day, it folds its apple-sour leaves until the sun emerges the following morning.