Bluebell, Wood sorrel and muskroot
May 2022
If, as the song goes, you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…well if that surprise is that you fall over, then you may be lucky enough to end up at eye level with some of the plants that I’ve been checking out this month.
All of these plants can be found without too much difficulty in either (and almost certainly both) the woods at the end of Pottle street and up towards Heavens Gate.
The first to catch my eye were the delicate lilac veined, five petaled flowers of wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella. This plant, flowering around Easter time, is known in much of Europe as ‘alleluia’. It has almost clover-like three lobed leaves that apparently act like a weathervane, folding up before and during rain and when it gets dark. Well, one of those might be useful, I guess the others you could work out for yourself. The leaves have a lemony flavour but should be consumed in moderation. Wood sorrel was in the past used for treating scurvy due to its high vitamin C content.
You’ll need to stay very close to the woodland floor to see the tiny flower of ivy-leaved speedwell Veronica hederifolia. This plant is an archaeophyte apparently (a new word for me) meaning it’s non native but introduced in ‘ancient’ times, so some time before the 15th century (pre early modern period). The name describes the leaves Ivy Hedera and leaf folia.
If you still can’t get up, you’re in luck because you’ll be face to face, as it were, with muskroot Adoxa moscahatellina, also known as moschatel or Good Friday plant (as it nearly always comes into flower by the beginning of April) This plant’s not showy but really subtly beautiful when you look closely. I guess when it was given its genus name they had this in mind as Adoxa means ‘without glory’. The other (specific) part of its name moschatellina means musk, referring to the musky smell it can emit when damp. Another of its common names is Town hall clock, so called because of the flowers that sit at the top of the stalk, four forming the (clock) faces of a cube and the fifth above.
Having eventually got to our feet and not needing to be quite so close to the floor we can enjoy the wood anemone Anemone nemorosa. The sight of this lovely, early spring, white flower always makes me happy. It is a good indicator of ancient woodlands or hedges as its seed is rarely fertile and therefore relies on its root system to spread, which it does at a pace of approximately six feet each hundred years.
Last but by no means least! I can’t not mention the bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta which is looking great, and not to be mistaken for the invasive, non-native Spanish bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica, the former being smaller and a more intensely coloured deep blue/purple; is stronger scented and all the flowers grow on one side of the distinctly drooping stem. If you want some bluebells in your garden these are the ones to buy or gather seed from.
Have fun in the woods and please watch your step!
NB, remember that it’s illegal to dig up any wild plant and always make double sure that the plant is what you think it is if you’re going to eat it.
