Wildflower safari

Driving across the border into Suffolk on Friday I noticed little clumps of cowslips, stitchwort and wood anemones by the side of the road. We've had chicken pox in the house so much of the last week has been spent cooped up, but these little glimpses of wildflowers reminded me that Spring was definitely here.

Stitchwort, taken using iPhone

Reading Sarah Raven's feature on wildflower sites in last month's Country Living magazine, I realised that I hadn't been in a bluebell wood since I was a child. I live in the country for goodness sake! This seemed wrong. Yesterday the Mr told me I needed a few hours off - I had strict instructions to get out of the house and have fun, so I hatched a plan.

Oxlip in Lower Wood, taken using iPhone

I knew that Celia of Purple Podded Peas gets as excited about wildflowers as I do, so after a couple of texts off we went on a wildflower safari. We were armed with homemade shortbread and a copy of Food for Free (just in case we got lost and had to forage for our lunch).

Our first stop was Lower Wood. We hoped for bluebells. We were not disappointed. The blue was breathtakingly intense.

By the side of the path through the wood was a beautiful patchwork of wild plants and flowers: oxlips (a little like cowslips but with more open flowers), wild strawberry, wood avens, meadowsweet and dog's mercury.

This was a truly magical place - entirely quiet except for birdsong.

Our next stop was the Devil's Dyke, a place where rare pasque flowers grow (see above). They are usually found on ancient sites or earthworks and legend says they grow where viking or Roman blood has been spilt. I had never seen a pasque flower before. They were exquisite.

Our final wildflower safari destination was Mickfield Meadow, one of the very few remaining spots where snakeshead fritillaries still grow wild. At first we could hardly see any but then we realised that most of them had been picked! Almost an entire generation of the fritillary plants won't be able to set seed this year. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to paint banners and stomp around shouting. We contacted the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. They are investigating.

Despite the shock of the decimated fritillaries it was a fabulous day. Celia and I gave overexcited squeaks each time we spotted something new. I tweeted a picture of oxlips from inside the wood! This may be a slightly embarrassing level of wildflower nerdery but one thing became clear yesterday: a walk in a flower-filled place is rather magical - and it's free!

There are lists of bluebell woods here, here and here,.

Edited to add: The Suffolk Wildlife Trust visited the meadow and told us the fritillaries were most likely eaten by deer/rabbits/pigeons due to the recent cold snap. The fritillary population wont be badly affected, which is a huge relief.