Twelve flowers to spot at Conwy in April

The longer days and warmer temperatures prompt the first flowers to bloom during the month. We have recorded over 350 species of flowering plant on the reserve, though there are certain to be some we have missed. So, we’ve put together a photoguide to 12 flowers that you should easily be able to find as you walk around Conwy this month.  Of course, we would ask you not to pick any flowers from the reserve and to be careful to avoid trampling them if you are taking photographs. 

You can also download the latest version of our plant checklist (at the bottom of this page, correct to the end of 2016), and if you find anything that we haven't recorded, please let us know, with as much detail as you can of the location.

Gorse

Gorse can flower at almost any time of the year, so it's a really valuable source of pollen and nectar for insects that emerge on warm days in early Spring. Its spines provide protection for small birds and a variety of invertebrates, noticeably spiders. On a warm day, some people smell the aroma of vanilla or toasted coconut when they're near gorse (not everyone can though, we don't all have the specific receptor in our nostrils). The perfume is created by the sun's rays causing the volatile oils in the flower to evaporate, which the plant uses to attract pollinating insects.

Blackthorn

Blackthorns are the first bushes to blossom, usually starting in March, and a couple of months ahead of the similar-coloured Hawthorns, which will be in bloom by the end of April. Blackthorn is a hermaphrodite, meaning that male and female parts are found in one flower - vital insurance for a flower that can be out before all but the earliest bumblebees. The fruits of the blackthorn are sloes, used to flavour gin, while the wood was traditionally used for making walking sticks.

Willow catkins

Willow trees are associated with wetlands, and we have six different species on the reserve. The flowers of the goat willow are a vital source of food for bees, wasps and flies that emerge on warm days when there is little other food. Goat willow trees are either male or female, and it is the cotton-like buds, from which the flowers unfurl in March, that are the male catkins (and which gives it the alternative name, pussy willow). Catkins on female trees are longer and green, and wait for the wind to blow the pollen from a male tree.

Cowslip

Cowslips were planted on the raised bank by the Coffee Shop in the early days of the reserve. They're doing well, thanks to our work to cut the vegetation at the end of the summer so that they don't get shaded out by more robust grasses.  Cowslips used to be abundant in grazing meadows, and it's thought they get their name because they were found among the cattle manure. When meadows were more common, cowslips were traditionally picked to celebrate May Day, but it's a sign of warmer Springs, that our cowslips are now over by the start of May.

Broad-leaved everlasting pea

This climbing vine is actually a garden escape, widely naturalised on disturbed ground, first recorded in the wild in 1670! It doesn't seem to be invasive at Conwy, growing in just a couple of places along the estuary path, near Benarth Hide, but we've included it here because visitors often wonder what it is!

Dandelion

You may just think of it as a garden 'weed', but don't dismiss the humble dandelion, as like many of the other flowers here, it's a vital source of food for early-emerging insects. It is a native flower in Europe, but is a invasive problem plant across other continents, to which it was exported as a food crop. Its seeds (the 'clock' of our youth) can blow several hundred metres from its source flower, each plant able to produce up to 5,000 seeds each year.

Red campion

Two campion species flower at Conwy: red and white, and the first of both appear in the second half of April. Originally a woodland plant, red campion is now a common roadside and hedgerow species. While the nectar is important for bees, flies and butterflies, the leaves are the food of several moth species including rivulet, twin-spot carpet and - not surprisingly - campion moth.

Red valerian

This is another introduced flower, originally from the Mediterranean, but now widespread across North Wales, where it seems to grow out of every stone wall and on every bit of disturbed ground along the coast. It can tolerate high levels of alkaline, hence its ability to grow from the mortar of walls where little else can. It's a good source of nectar, and with its wide head of leaves, is a favourite of large migratory insects such as hummingbird hawkmoth and painted lady butterfly.

Cuckoo-flower / Lady's smock

Cuckoo flowers are found around the damp margins, so look closely along the Ganol Trail and in front of the coffee shop. Its name originates from its appearance around the time that male cuckoos would be heard to call. Sadly, cuckoos are all too rare in coastal North Wales now, but you can still see the plant, which is the county flower of Cheshire (where it's known as Milkmaid) and Brecknockshire in mid-Wales. It's the food-plant for orange-tip butterflies, which are also on the wing in early Spring.

Lesser celandine

The glossy yellow petals of the lesser celandine are one of the first signs of Spring along a Welsh roadside verge or on ungrazed grassland. It's a relatively scarce flower at Conwy, though there are some in the small garden by the back door of the Visitor Centre and around the margins of the car park. They close their petals overnight or during rain, so you might overlook them.  Lesser celandine was traditionally used to treat haemhorroids, hence its other English name: pilewort!

Alexanders

This umbellifer, with its tiny green-yellow flowers, is another plant that is a real saviour for early-emerging insects. It is native to the Mediterranean, but was brought to Britain thousands of years ago, and certainly by the Romans, as a food plant. It is intermediate in flavour between parsley and celery, and was a staple plant in the allotments of Medieval monastery gardens. Its original English name was Parsley of Alexandria, a clue to both its use as a vegetable and its east Mediterranean origins.  It's frequently one of the first plants to colonise bare ground near the coast.

 

Daisy

Easily ignored, daisies are one of the first flowers that young children notice, frequently growing in garden lawns. They can pop up in any month of the year, but April is the time of year that they put on a spurt with warmer soil temperatures. Indeed, its scientific name, Bellis perennis, means 'everlasting pretty flower', while its English name is a corruption of Day's Eye, because they close up their petals at night.