Cuckoo flower

..or lady's smock.  Cardamine pratensis

I found this down in the water meadows at St Cross, which are currently too sodden even for walking boots if you don't keep to the tracks.  There were quite a lot of cuckoo flowers down there but they never seems to grow in clumps, just these single slender stems growing as far away from each other as possible. 

This flower is one of the bittercresses and has a group of rather unpleasant myths surrounding it.  If you pick it you'll be bitten by an adder, you shouldn't put it in a May garland and if you bring it inside, your house will be struck by lighting.  Oh and there's sex in there somewhere, tsk tsk!

Okay, that's me.  Have a great weekend  xx

2018 wildflowers to date:

JANUARY
Snowdrops
FEBRUARY
Gorse (or furze)
Wild daffodils
MARCH
Coltsfoot
Primroses
Blackthorn (may)
APRIL
Greater periwinkle
Goat willow
Ground ivy
Cowslips
Daisy
Common field speedwell
Wood anemone
Greater celandine
MAY
Cuckoo flower (or lady’s smock)