Bluebells at Pound Green – Bitter-vetch – ‘Wonky Horns’ – Annual knawel leaves – Ducklings – Teesdalia habitat – Pudford Sunset – Stork’s-bill on the verge
This week, St. Mark’s Flies have taken to the skies coinciding nicely with the start of the hawthorn blossom. The docile flight of St. Mark’s Fly seems to make them the perfect snack for an acrobatic house sparrow, a behaviour that I’ve observed for the first time in the garden this week.
This is a draft list with specific details, such as parking, maps and photos to follow. I’m not saying these are the best places, (although Shrawley probably is) but they provide a spring board to get outside, and into an adventure.
If you know any other super spots for bluebells in Worcestershire, please feel free to drop a comment.
Next… Bluebell Pub Walks!?
Rapeseed sunset – Jack-by-the-hedge – Bluebells at Shrawley – Apple Blossom – Lords-and-ladies – Small nettle vs. Common nettle
I haven’t managed to capture as much as I’d have liked to this week, but Week 16 has felt like the true start of spring.
Apple blossoms are fully out, cow parsley is starting, but the most obvious features of the countryside that have stood out have been the rapeseed fields, the bluebell woods, and Jack-by-the-hedge. A lot has recently come into flower on Hartlebury Common, too, including many smaller acid grassland flowers.
Woodlands often hold our attention at this time of year, but before the parching heat of the summer, acid grasslands are also wonderful spots to botanise.
This week, the minute plants of sandy grasslands and disturbed areas of Hartlebury Common have woken up. With the turf littered with little botanical gems, here is a quick rundown of what I saw flowering this week…
Golden hour – Slate binoculars at Corris – Mine tunnels – Slate stock fencing – ‘Little Italy’ – Barmouth bridge – Marsh Marigolds
At this time of year, we have more in common with plants than you think. The warmth of the spring sunshine feels like it brings us to life after a long winter, as much as it does them. Amongst the first wildflowers that catch the eye, in striking purple, are the violets.
There are around 14 different species of violet in Britain (Stace, 2019), but one of the first to flower is Sweet Violet Viola odorata. The other early emerger is the aptly named Early Dog-violet Viola reichenbachiana.
But how do you separate a Sweet Violet from a Dog-violet?
It’s really quite easy, and we do this by looking at the sepals. Study the photo below for a quick overview of violet flower anatomy before reading on.
If you study the sepals in the photos below, you will see that Sweet Violet Viola odorata has blunt sepals, much like the end of your thumb. Whereas Dog-violets Viola spp. have pointed sepals, like a dog’s tooth.
Now that we can confidently separate sweet from the dogs, let’s have a look at some common colour varieties of Sweet Violet that I’ve recorded this spring. I have started by listing varieties I have seen and photographed, and then put additional varieties of that colour type in bullet points below.
Much of the information below is based on the ‘Violas of Britain and Ireland‘ by Michael Porter and Michael Foley. If you enjoy Violet hunting, then be sure to grab yourself a copy to support the authors.
The most frequently encountered variety near me is one of the white forms, named Viola odorata var. dumetorum. It has a white corolla and a purple spur. There are also small tufts of hair on the inside edge of the lateral petals (below right). St. Peter’s Church, Martley.
Another white form, which I encounter less frequently, is Viola odorata var. imberbis. According to Violas of Britain and Ireland, this variety is more typically found on calcareous soils. I’ve mostly encountered it at the base of trees! This variety has a white corolla, a pinkish spur and lacks the tufts of hairs on the lateral petals. Entrance to Hartlebury Castle, Hartlebury. 14.03.26.
I’ve only come across one pink coloured Sweet Violet, and that was Viola odorata var. subcarnea. This variety is thought to be a pink form of var. imberbis. It has a pink corolla with a violet spur, and lacks the hairs on the lateral petals. Seen at the base of an old cherry, near the Tontine in Stourport-on-Severn.
Where I found it, it was growing with var. imberbis at the base of a cherry tree, and some plants were intermediate in character, and showed a mixed colouration to the petals (below).
This is the typical violet-coloured Sweet Violet. Surprisingly, I seem to see this the least! Maybe I am not looking hard enough. Both the corolla and spur of this variety come in many shades of violet (as below), and it has tufts of hair on the lateral petals. Seen at St. Peter’s Church, Martley and Charlton Mill, Hartlebury.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any of the yellow V. odorata var. sulfurea yet…
This variety has apricot-yellow corollas with a pink spur and usually has tufts of hairs on the lateral petals (Porter and Foley, 2017). If I find any after the publication of this post, I will return and update with the photos and location.
If you have seen any yellow or apricot forms of Sweet Violet, I would love to hear from you!
This post has been super fun to put together, checking out the different violets on my hands and knees, looking for tufts of hair, and getting excited over a species so ubiquitous has been a lovely way to start off the season. I hope this encourages you to go out and look more closely at your local violets, in churchyards, hedgerows, gardens and lanesides.
Happy Violet Hunting,
Tom
Shelsley Walsh church – Pink Vinca – Wild daffodils – White sweet violet – First wood anemone – Spring lambs – Black phesant – Vine farm pools
They reckon your brain works better after a walk in nature, and I agree. Every day I spend at the office, I go on a short walk. Hopehouse Farm to St. Peter’s Church via Hopehouse Lane.
This blog explores the botanical delights encountered during that walk, proving that all you need is one short walk a day to appreciate your local flora.
At the end of the blog, there is a list of all the species encountered, organised by month. Why not try ticking some off this spring?
Whilst lanes might seem unremarkable in comparison with a species-rich grassland or upland flush, it’s often in the waysides, the remnants of countryside, that many of our native plants can be found. Here, they are poised and waiting for their moment to return to the wider landscape.
Along Hopehouse Lane, the bases of the hawthorn hedgerows are scattered with plants typically associated with ancient woodland, such as Greater Stitchwort Stellaria holostea and Dog’s Mercury Mercurialis perennis. These hedgerows represent a small snapshot of the woodlands that once would have been widespread in the area before being cleared in times gone by, or as Wordsworth put it…
“These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines of sportive wood run wild”
A particularly interesting find, which was only yards from the office, was Dwarf Elder Sambucus ebulus (below). This locally scarce species is an archeophyte, and is thought to have naturalised in Britain between the Neolithic period and 1500 AD.
Between the lane and the hedgerow is rough grassland. This linear belt, sandwiched between the tarmac and the hedgerow, is the last stand for a suite of grassland and woodland edge species. Here, species such as Common Century Centaurium erythraea, Primrose Primula vulgaris, Cowslip Primula veris, and even their hybrid, the False Oxlip Primula x polyantha can be found.
Down the lane in St. Peter’s churchyard. Here, it’s unlikely that the grasslands have been extensively treated with pesticides. Therefore, they still support meadow indicators such as Sweet vernal-grass Anthoxanthum odoratum, Bulbous Buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus and Rough Hawk’s-bit Leontodon hispidus. This suite of species affords us a glimpse into the past, to the kinds of grasslands that once would have been widespread in this part of the county.
At the Millennium Green, there is a tall, busy grassland which is a cacophony of crickets on a warm June day. In the centre, there is a linear wetland that supports species that like their feet wet, such as Flag Iris Iris pseudacorus, Lesser Pond-sedge Carex acutiformis and Bullrush Typha latifolia and Great Willowherb Epilobium hirsutum.
The grassland surrounding the pond is dominated by False oat-grass Arrhenatherum elatius with spatterings of Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium and Meadow Crane’s-bill Geranium pratense (for the ecologist; MG1 in NVC, g3c5 in UKHab).
Around the fringes of the green are beautiful perry pear trees (don’t ask me what variety), which were in full blossom by early April. I foolishly took a pear in the autumn, and bit into it, it dried my mouth out like cotton wool – you win some, you lose some.
That concludes the descriptions of the different areas along the walk, the route and a full list of flowers seen is provided below. Let me know if you see any of these next spring!
These species are listed by the month that I first recorded them flowering on the walk; this is just a rough guide, and these flowers can be found outside of these months too.
And with that, my total count was 79. And that’s just the beginning; there are dozens more that I didn’t record, as I was only focusing on flowers this time. Let me know if you see any of these plants this spring!
Tom Ward, 2025
Gateway to Heaven – Plough by sunset – This could be anywhere in the world – Early Dog-violet – Coltsfoot Rock – Old ant hills – Pied wagtail pond – Greenfinch vs Siskin
Notes: It has recently become the time of year when you can wake up to daylight and even squeeze a short walk in after work, racing the setting sun. Three photos from the same spot this week (Dunley), but it’d be a shame not to share these golden hour shots. 08.03.26.
The verdant bus – Lesser Celandine – First blossom – Searching Stanner Rocks – Grassland vs wet woodland
Notes: The thing that doesn’t show in these photos is the birdsong. Everywhere I’ve been, the birdsong has been omnipresent. A stark contrast from the previous months, and along with the spring sunshine, is very welcome indeed.