Purple toothwort and kingcups in flower

All in all it's been a very good Easter weekend here in the Tamar Valley. Admittedly it has now clouded right up with, as I type this in mid afternoon, a little light rain falling but Saturday and Sunday were very pleasantly sunny and quite warm as well. On Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a cracking ramble to Morwellham further down river and on the Devon bank. There are some wetland areas adjacent to this walk and it was good to see plenty of kingcups in flower; another speciality that we hoped would be seen is the parasitic purple toothwort, the white or pink variety might not be particularly rare but the purple one is much more so. It is quite spectacular regarding the vibrancy of its colour and we were rewarded with the flowers being out.

It always seems to be the custom to remember miserable weather on bank holidays in this country and forget that they can be pretty good on occasion. I've just looked at an entry I made at the end of August 2007 when I made a similar observation having experienced good weather for both the Easter and late Summer Bank Holidays that year. Lets see what the two May bank holidays throw at us next month.

Butterfly orchids in flower

To things botanical for this posting. We took the opportunity yesterday evening to visit some folk we know in the Tamar Valley who have a sizeable amount of land, this being managed with conservation very much in mind. The reason that this particular couple wanted us to come now is that they have over 100 butterfly orchids in flower! To be a little more specific they are the greater butterfly orchids rather than the 'lesser' variety. We were also very excited to have a number of purple helleborines pointed out to us although it's way too early for these to be in flower.

Whilst on the subject of flowers the Tamar Valley is a good place to see the very striking purple toothwort in Spring. An image of this parasitic flower can be seen here And away from Devon and Cornwall a brother in Herefordshire has seen the increasingly rare corn cockle in the middle of Leominster of all places! It's amazing what turns up where so far as flowers are concerned.