... Well first cuckoo flower anyway!
Returning from the North Hide this evening, the eagle-eyed Emblem-English, (or Chris to his many friends) made a welcome botanical discovery in the delicate shape of our very first cuckoo flower. I am sure that we all have certain things, particular to ourselves, which we most look forward to reacquainting ourselves with at this time of re-growth, regeneration, awakening and migration - and the first cuckoo flower is always, for me, a little bit special.
Cuckoo Flower, (also known as Lady’s Smock) is a still a fairly common herb with a large native range extending across Europe and into Asia. It is a lover of moist conditions as befits a relative of watercress with which it also shares the familiar bitter taste. Also, like its relative it provides a rich source of vitamin C, but more importantly it is the main food plant of the Orange Tip butterfly which time their single annual hatch to coincide with its flowering - so that is another harbinger of spring to keep an eye out for in coming weeks.
By flowering early it avoids competition with other much larger moisture loving plants, such as hemlock-water dropwort, willow herb or hemp agrimony to name but three. In medieval times it was believed that the plant was sacred to fairies and it was considered an ill omen to bring the flowers indoors. One might have thought that in medieval Britain there were more pressing daily concerns than fear of evoking ire in fairies, but at least they left the cuckoo flower to prosper and long may they continue to do so.
Its more a late-march flower down here. That said the reason it is called cuckoo flower is because its flowering coincides with the arrival of the cuckoo - which is more May than March. With this in mind, (as a southerner) I'll stick to lady's smock from now on!
Some people might also know it as May Flower. That's what we have always called it "up north"
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