Early Dog-violet

At last, a perfect spring day with plenty of warm sunshine. Pete and I did some more plant recording in a couple of small Lincolnshire villages whose verges were studded with sweet violets, primroses, early dog-violets and lesser celandines, which were attracting brimstone and small tortoiseshell butterflies, hairy-footed flower bees and the first dark-bordered bee-fly of the year. 

A small fragment of ancient woodland held the promise of bluebells and yellow archangel flowers, but I was more excited to find a couple of specimens of scarlet elf cup (see extra), a species that had eluded me previously, despite regularly hunting for it in our local wood, where it is known to occur.

We then dropped into Twyford Wood, where flowers were decidedly sparse - everything seems to be about a month behind normal. There was very little sign of new growth and not a single tree or shrub was in leaf. We trekked some distance to a rather remote corner of the wood, which protrudes into a neighbouring tetrad, where we found masses of early purple-orchid leaf rosettes, though not a sign of any flowers, as well as a plant of glabrous whitlow-grass, only the third record in VC53 and three very free-range chickens!

By the time we got home we'd walked a fair old distance and I felt quite tired. Alex suggested an Indian take-away, and we were joined by Ben's girlfriend, so it turned into a very jolly and sociable evening.