Early morning sparrow squawk jostles through my bedroom window, below it the snowdrops’ meek bowed heads shiver in the breeze. Winter’s cold hard grip is slackening and Spring sunlight is chinking through the loosening grasp. At last another wild year begins.

Snowdrops are not native to the UK but they have been here a long time. Elizabeth I was on the throne when they were first grown here and they were first recorded in the wild nearly 200 years later. During this time many legends and myths have grown up around them. In floriography, where specific meanings are attached to different flowers to enable encrypted communication (especially popular during Victorian times), snowdrops symbolised chastity, purity, death, hope, consolation and friendship in adversity

This native tree loves moist ground, so no surprise that I found one by the stream in the Warren. Look closely, there’s loads to see in this photo. Common Alder have both male and female flowers. The male flowers are the long yellow catkins, if you flick one now you’ll see a puff of pollen. The female flowers are the short reddish oval shapes. Bottom left are the woody cones, all that is left of the fruits after winter.

Hazel is another native British tree, but it doesn’t like boggy ground as much as the Alder. Again each tree has both male and female flowers, and again the male flowers are yellow catkins. The female flowers are small red tassles, there’s one right at the top of this photo. The fruits are hazelnuts, but round here the squirrels usually scoff them all before they are fully ripened.

I am sooo excited! Look at these clusters of tiny flower buds, very soon the blackthorn will be in blossom and it will feel like Spring is really here.

Not far behind the blackthorn are the hawthorn leaf buds. These singular buds on the tree by the stream in the Warren are poking out from lichen encrusted twigs. Maybe it’s the glow of the low light at this time of year but the lichen feels incredibly vivid. On hawthorn the leaves open first, followed later by flowers in mid May.

• Phillips, Roger (1978) Trees in Britain, Europe and North America, Pan Books Ltd., London.
• https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/blog/Are_Snowdrops_Native_Wild_Flowers

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