A cold and overcast April day for our Spring wild flower walk. An impressive 19 people were present to search for wild flowers and a few native trees.
Meeting at the Park Visitor Centre. We gave the participants a list of the flowers expected to be seen. (and all bar one were!)
By the centre, we saw Daisy (left), Lesser Celandine, Hybrid Bluebells, Herb Robert among many others with some participants trying to out-guess others....
Some trivia was added along the way including the fact that the Celandine comes from the Greek for swallow and flower is meant to welcome the arrival of these birds....
Another unsubstantiated fact was the the name oeing swept away in the Danube crying "Vergissmeinnicht". See here. or from German Wikipedia an alternative explanation: "Because the blue flowers remind of the folk belief in the eyes of newly in love people, forget-me-nots were given as love and loyalty, mostly from the man to the woman."
The other side of the car park, we found that the Wood Anemones were still flowering and someone spotted a flower not on the original list - a Smooth Sow-thistle. Double points!!!
Divertissement... We looked the Horse-chestnut and noticed how the colour changes from white and yellow to white and red when flowers are pollinated. Picture left courtesy of Conchita Navarro.
Wandering downhill, we looked the female and male holly flowers before crossing the road and heading towards the Paddock Car Park - a surprising wild flower hot spot.
Native bluebells, common vetch (left below) and most impressively a path through wild garlic.
After a look at some delicate Cowslips and Greater Stitchwort, we finished the walk with Borage and Greater Celandine and the last of decamped to the Capital Garden Centre for a welcome cup of tea and something nice to eat.
A good haul of flowers in a one hour short walk.
Disclaimedr. Links to Male Holly and Sow-thistle from elsewhere in the Park.
Pictures of all the flowers seen (except the Sow-thistle).
A full list of the flowers seen on the walk.