Some purple flowers found on a riverside walk - Red dead nettle, Periwinkle, Toothwort and Butterbur.  People might be familiar with the huge leaves of the Butterbur (Petasites hybridus) plant growing beside damp areas and streams in summer.  It was so called because the huge rhubarb like leaves were used for wrapping butter before refrigeration because they are soft and pliable to fold without breaking and thick enough to cushion the butter.  It also gets its scientific name from the Greek word “Petasos” meaning a broad brimmed felt and the 16th century herbalist, Gerard, wrote that the leaves were “bigge and large inough to keepe a man’s head from raine. and from the heat of the sunne”  The flowers emerge in early spring before the leaves and last year I blipped the rarer White Butterbur  which also grows near a local river.