Category: David

Shining cranesbill prefers limy soil, not often found in Wolverhampton other than in gardens. But it can be found, growing apparently wild, by a stretch of the canal towpath opposite the Wildside Activity Centre.

Ramsons, also known as wild garlic, are found growing under trees, often near water. Like many plants of the woodland floor, they flower in the early spring, before the shade of the leaf canopy has closed in.

The blackthorn flowers in the last post came from the long hedge which separates the Barley Field from the Railway Walk in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve. The hedge is so long that only an aerial photo could do it full justice. This is the lower section, perhaps half the entire length.

Blackthorn has been spectacular this year: it’s always impressive with a mass of tiny flowers on bushes before there are any signs of leaves appearing. The flowers are now beginning the process of turning into sloes.

Here the flowers were at their height, showing at their best on a sunny morning.

Tightly-wrapped sycamore bud. It was on the twig of a young tree, conveniently at eye level.

At the end of a maple twig, a flower bud beginning to open. I think that the smaller, still closed buds are leaves.