A Lincolnshire posy

Lincolnshire

posy

and

a countryside bounty

The decline in our wild flowers in recent years is a continuing disappointment for those who love the spring because it is at this time of year when they are at their best. But the disappearance of old hay meadows and traditional grassland, the widespread use of farm chemicals, industrial and residential encroachment and the illegal digging up of plants for private gardens, has drastically reduced their natural habitats and so it is a delight to find those secret places around Bourne where they still thrive, their annual life cycle uninterrupted by the hand of man, their worst enemy.

Sloes in Bourne Wood

Sloes growing in Bourne Wood

Sloe gin comes from the blackthorn, a shrubby tree up to 12 feet high, often seen in hedgerows, and is among the first to flower in the spring. The Latin name, Prunus spinosa, means literally "spiny plum" and it belongs to the rose family but is an ancestor of our garden plums. Each flower has five white petals and after pollination, a stone fruit is formed, a sloe with a tough blue-black outer skin covered with a white waxy bloom. Sloes mature in October and are intensely bitter but ample sugar added to their pulp makes a tasty jelly although they are picked more for sloe gin, a potent drink produced by steeping them in gin to which they give a piquant flavour. Birds are also partial to the flesh of the sloe and drop or swallow the hard, indigestible seed, thus ensuring the spread of the species and once established, thickets persist indefinitely, expanding by means of sucker shoots from the roots.

Teasel growing in Baston Fen

Teasel growing on the edge of a gravel pit at Baston Fen

Teasel is a prickly biennial, a striking plant with large, spiny heads that fill with water in rainy weather, often drowning small insects that nest there, and it has been speculated that the plant could benefit from them because it might be carnivorous, although some tropical flowers use similar water traps to protect their flowers from insect attack. In summer, they produce a mass of rose-purple blooms amid small, narrow leaves but by September they are quite dead yet still retain their perfect shape which is so attractive in vase arrangements and provide food for goldfinches through the winter. Teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris sylvestris) is the most common species in Britain and I photographed these growing on the banks of a disused gravel pit at Baston Fen, near Bourne, which appeared to be a particularly suitable environment because they thrive in grassy places and at the riverside. The spiny heads have long been used to raise the nap on velour or cashmere, no machine or manufactured hand tool having been invented to do the job better.

Common fleabane

Common fleabane growing on the edge of a gravel pit at Baston Fen

A familiar yellow daisy-like plant known as common fleabane can often be found in places where there is standing water, preferring moist meadows and the banks of ditches, brooks and rivers, growing in masses and frequently over-running large tracts of land on account of its creeping underground stems. This picture was taken at the private nature reserve in Baston Fen, five miles south of Bourne, owned by farmer Nicholas Watts and containing two disused gravel pits that have attracted a wide variety of plant, animal and bird life. Common fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) is so named because it was once used to repel fleas and the stems of the plant were strewn on the floors of houses for this purpose. Dried and burned, it acted as an insecticide against midges and the plant also has medicinal properties, once being used to treat dysentery.

Feverfew

Feverfew growing on waste ground near the entrance to Bourne Wood

Some of the most attractive of our wild flowers can be found growing in secluded places where they flourish untouched and often unseen. I found this patch of feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium) on waste ground alongside the Beech Avenue entrance to Bourne Wood in July 2004 where passers-by treated it as a weed. Feverfew is a perennial growing to about 18 inches tall and is commonly seen at the roadside, on walls and in old churchyards, with deeply cut dark green leaves and clusters of daisy-like yellow centred white flowers, between July and September. The name feverfew is a corruption of fibrifuge, a substance which puts fever to flight and was probably introduced from Europe in the Middle Ages by mediaeval herbalists. It is highly aromatic and often grown for ornament or medicine, the drug it contains being once used to reduce high temperatures and cure headaches, particularly migraines. The strong smell comes from the leaves and many people find it unpleasant.

Bourne Wood 2004

Honeysuckle growing in Bourne Wood

One of the most frequent and popular woodland flowers is the honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) that proliferates in Bourne Wood, clinging to tree trunks and sometimes climbing to a height of twenty feet and more. It flowers between June and October, producing compact, creamy, trumpet-shaped heads, often flushed with red or purple and its heavy sweet scent make it a popular transplant for gardens although it can soon run out of control unless severely pruned back. It is equally conspicuous in autumn with its clusters of crimson berries. Night flying moths are attracted by the scent, which is strongest at dusk, and pollinate the flowers as they seek nectar. There are 300 varieties of honeysuckle and many have medicinal properties, most famously as an aphrodisiac, and are still regarded by the Arabs as an excellent restorative while the roots, if eaten, are reputed to be good for the liver, to ease cramps and convulsions.

Bluebells growing in a secluded glade in Bourne Wood

The appearance of bluebells is a sign of an ancient woodland and many such sites can be found around Bourne. They grow in profusion in Bourne Wood, in Dole Wood and at Callan's Lane near Kirkby Underwood where their nodding, bell-shaped blue flowers carpet the forest floor every spring. The bluebell (Endymion non-scriptus) blooms from late April until early June and then survives for the rest of the year as a small, white, juice-filled bulb, about six inches below the surface of the ground, awaiting for the next spring when a succulent stem rises from it to a height of 12-18 inches, surrounded at ground level by long, strap-like leaves. In Scotland they call it the wild hyacinth the famous bluebells of Scotland actually being a harebell, and the bluebells we see in gardens are not actually the delicate wild species but a bigger and coarser variety that is a native to Spain and Portugal.

Great willowherb

Great willowherb growing alongside a footpath in Bourne Wood, July 2005

Great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) is tall and softly hairy and is usually found in damp places such as marshes, the banks of ponds and the margins of lakes, rivers and streams. It stands erect and flowers in July and August and appears in deep purplish-pink clumps that can be seen from a distance. The leaves, and particularly the top shoots, when slightly bruised, have a delicate and cool odour resembling scalded codlings, hence its popular name of Codlings and Cream, but this fragrance is soon lost after the plant is gathered. It is also called, in allusion to this delicate scent, Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Gooseberry Pie, Sod Apple and Plum Pudding, and is believed to be St Anthony's herb of antiquity.

Buttercups growing in meadow just off the A151 west of Bourne.

There was a time when buttercup meadows were a familiar sight in the countryside but there is now no place for them in areas of intensive farming such as that around Bourne where they have been killed off by the repeated use of herbicides. The buttercup (Ranunculus acris) however is one of nature's survivors and remains one of our most familiar summer flowers because it can be seen at this time in some fields and more especially along roadside verges, springing from dormant roots and spreading over the springing turf, eager to set seed before they are overshadowed by tall, lush grasses. They are a sign that the countryside is coming alive and not even late frosts will stop the new growth. The rich yellow of the cup-shaped flowers is associated in folklore with the yellow butter that comes from the cattle that grazed the pastures and a favourite trick of childhood in past times was to pluck a buttercup and hold it under a friend's chin and if it reflected the yellow colour on to the skin, which it invariably did, then this was declared to be a sign that they like butter. Who would have thought that the day would come when the simple buttercup would be exterminated wherever possible by agro-chemicals? Ah, those halcyon days of youth and innocence.

Cowslips on a stretch of roadside verge between Hanthorpe and Edenham

The cowslip (Primula veris) comes from the same family as the primrose and also had similar uses. They once grew in abundance in many places, especially along roadside verges but are now a rare sight because they have become a victim of both farm chemicals and of plant collectors who take them to decorate their gardens and so deprive us of their countryside beauty. The name cowslip is a polite form of cowslop or cowpat, referring to its occurrence in scattered clumps in cattle pasture land. The flowers when collected in full bloom during April or May make a wine which was once recommended as a cure for insomnia while an ointment they produced was claimed to cure spots and wrinkles. Cowslips, like primroses, are a protected species and it is now illegal to pick them or dig them up and yet there seem fewer about now than in previous years. Are the vandals still abroad in the countryside? However, several patches can be found on the wide grassy verges around the Bourne area, especially on the back road between Greatford and Belmesthorpe, nodding their dainty heads in the gentle breeze of a sunny April morning to make your journey well worthwhile.

Ramsons growing in Dole Wood, near Bourne

The pungent smell of garlic meets visitors as they enter Dole Wood, near Bourne, each spring. Large clumps of ramsons (Allium ursinum) abound and there are so many near the shaded entrance to the wood that they carpet the floor with white. Ramsons advertise themselves by this overpowering smell of garlic, hence the common name of wild garlic, and there has been speculation that long ago they was used as well as, or in place of, onions for the table although cooking diminishes the smell. Country folk also say that bread made from wheat cut from the damp edges of fields very often had a not unpleasant taste of onions because the reaper had scythed up a fair proportion of ramsons and never bothered to clean them out. With their long shiny leaves and clusters of white star-like flowers, ramsons make a pleasant backdrop to the bluebells for which Dole Wood is famous.

Lesser celandines growing by the roadside at Edenham, near Bourne.

The lesser or small celandine can be seen in early March while driving out to the villages, in damp and shady places, shyly peeping through the greenery along the moist banks of dykes and streams, its glossy foliage forming a dense carpet. It is one of the very earliest of our spring flowers, its cheery, star-like heads lighting up our roadside verges even before the winter is quite spent. William Wordsworth recognised the lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) as a harbinger of spring and suggested that the painter who first tried to picture the rising sun must have taken the idea of the spreading, pointed rays from what he called the celandine's "glittering countenance". It became his favourite flower and its blossoms are carved on his tomb and in 1804, while living at Dove Cottage near Grasmere in the Lake District, he wrote:

There is a Flower, the lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

Early purple orchids growing alongside the Yew Tree Avenue at Clipsham

The early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) flowers in the spring and can be found in moist woods and grassland and so it was appropriate that we found these examples growing on the bank of a narrow drainage ditch although they are also often seen among bluebells in ancient woodland. These are delicate lilac-coloured flowers, rising on long stalks from a pair of strap-shaped fleshy leaves, black-blotched on their dark green surface. It is these leaf spots that can cause confusion with the common spotted orchid but this species mainly appears in June. The flowers of the early purple orchid are most attractive but they do have the unlovely smell of tomcats. There is another feature of this unusual species that engages the attention because the twin tubers resemble testicles and so this orchid was used as an aphrodisiac whilst the name orchid actually comes from the Greek for testicle. There is a fascinating archive of folklore and herbal use that has built up over the centuries when our wild orchids flowered in abundance each spring. We now look in vain for them every year and as the variety of flora and fauna that we once knew in our countryside continues to recede, it is quite likely that in the very near future, the only contact we can have with them will be from books and photographs.

Hazel nuts

There is an edible bounty in fruit and nuts from Bourne Wood that is collected annually, ranging from rose hips and blackberries to sloes and crab apples. In past times, before the arrival of the supermarket culture, there was a race to pick them when they were ready because food from the shops was expensive and so additional nutrition from the countryside for the price of a little physical effort was welcome for families on low incomes. Hazel (Corylus avellana) is widely distributed in Europe and can be found in woods, thickets and hedgerows, growing to around 12 metres, although often shorter and usually a broad bush, sometimes with a short trunk. The bark is a smooth and shiny grey-brown and the female flowers begin as small brown buds with protruding crimson stigmas, developing into clusters of one to four nuts, each partly enclosed in a toothed green husk, and changing from whitish green, as pictured above in mid-summer, to pale pink brown and finally brown by the autumn when they are ready for picking. October is the best month, a time of wayside nibbling and sampling, because hazelnuts are then at their prime and although it would be a simpler task to buy a packet from Sainsburys or Rainbow, paying for them at the checkout will not give you the same pleasure as seeking them out in the wild and of course, they will taste that much better.

Ox-eye daisies colonising a building site in Bourne

Among the most familiar of all summer flowers are the large white daises adorning meadows and waste ground and mile after mile of roadside and railway embankment. The ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) has a long unbranched stem making it a favourite ingredient in a bunch of wild flowers of times past before picking such blooms was outlawed. It is related to the larger Shasta Daisy, originally from the Pyrenees and widely cultivated in gardens. This perennial thrives in grassy places around the countryside from June to August and has large yellow-centred white daisy-like heads that can be smaller in exposed places. It has various medicinal uses and the ancients dedicated this flower to Artemis, the goddess of women, because it was considered to be useful in women's complaints. Country people also used to take a decoction of the fresh plant in their ale as a cure for jaundice.

Primroses in the village churchyard at Irnham, near Bourne

Primroses (Primula vulgaris) have always been a well-loved wild flower in England and were once planted on graves which is probably how they arrived in the churchyard at Irnham in centuries past. They were once highly regarded for their medicinal properties and during mediaeval times, an ointment made from primrose leaves boiled with lard was used by woodsmen in the New Forest to treat cuts while on May Day, bunches of primroses were laid on the floor of cowsheds to protect cattle from witches at a time when they were considered to be at their most active.

Elder flower growing at the roadside near Lound, south of Bourne (above) and
elderberries in Baston Fen (below).

Elderberries

Elder flower is small and creamy-white and one of our most prolific blooms to be found in the countryside at springtime. The flat-topped clusters have a bitter sweet fragrance and although many people profess a strong dislike of the smell, the elder (Sambucus nigra) is generally beloved by all who see it because it is one of the most familiar and attractive features of our hedgerows while its olde-worlde associations have won a place in the hearts of English people. It has been said with some truth that our summer is not here until the elder is fully in flower and that it ends when the berries are ripe. The word elder comes from the Anglo-Saxon word oeld or fire, the hollow stems of the young branches having been used for blowing up a fire. The soft pith pushes out easily and the tubes thus formed were used as pipes, hence it is often called a pipe tree and as young lads of my generation knew they were also perfect for use as pea shooters or pop guns. A wealth of folk lore, romance and superstition surround the elder, the most familiar tale being that the Cross of Calvary was made of this wood and in consequence it has become the emblem of sorrow and death. But despite these traditions, the elder has a firm claim on the popular affection for its many sterling virtues and its uses are manifold and important. The wood of old trees is white and fine and polishes well and has many uses for such articles as skewers and pegs. The leaves when bruised and worn in the hat or rubbed on the face will keep the flies at bay while the bark, flowers and berries are all reputed to have numerous medicinal uses and the recipes for such culinary delights as elder flower vinegar, elder wine, elderberry jam, chutney and ketchup, are legion and still produced in many country kitchens.

Wood anemones can be found in profusion in Bourne Wood during April

The wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), also known as crowfoot and windflower, is a many petalled bloom of white, tinged and veined with purple, the main leaves of the plant rising from the ground only after flowering is completed. The blooms open wide in bright sunshine and then close as night falls, so ensuring that the dew will not settle and cause damage and there is a similar reaction when rain threatens during the daytime. This plant is also the subject of much folklore and the Romans plucked the first anemones as a charm against fever and the practice has survived in some remote districts where it is picked with the words: "I gather this against all diseases" and then tied around the patient's neck. Greek legends say that Anemos, the Wind, sends the anemones in the early spring days as a herald of his coming and that they only open when the wind blows, hence their alternative name of windflower. One British naturalist claims that it flowers at the same time as the return of the swallow, yet few of these birds are to be seen here in South Lincolnshire at this time of the year while another expert who was recording the days on which it came into bloom, found that the wood anemone never blossomed earlier than March 16 and never later than April 22, observations that were made each spring for a period of thirty years.

May blossom

May blossom growing along the old Bourne to Spalding railway track

May is the month when Mother Nature paints the hedgerows white with blossom and we can see it in profusion and sample its bitter sweet smell wherever we go. It is at its most prolific in the thickets and hedgerows that line the fields and meadows between Bourne and Stamford and along the route of old railway lines where the hawthorn trees have been left unattended since the services closed down. We see these hawthorn trees in such profusion because they were often planted as windbreaks and boundary hedges and they can reach a height of thirty feet and live to a great age and in addition to this utilitarian purpose, they provide us with this magnificent display of delicate white blossom every spring. Indeed, haw is also an old word for hedge, hence the association. The hawthorn is steeped in folklore and tradition and many country folk believe that the flowers still bear the smell of the Great Plague of London. Certainly, the hawthorn was once regarded as sacred, probably from a belief that it furnished the crown of thorns for Christ at the crucifixion and the device of a hawthorn bush was chosen by Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, because a small crown from the helmet of Richard III was discovered hanging on a hawthorn tree after he had been defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, hence the saying: "Cleve to thy crown though it hangs on a bush." Another piece of folklore was that you should never smell the scent of the blossom because it would induce you to wet the bed and of course the hawthorn has a long tradition of medicinal uses, not least as a diuretic which may explain the aversion to this most wonderful of flowers that many pass by unnoticed.

Bourne Wood 2004

Wild roses in the hedgerow alongside a narrow country road
near Hanthorpe (above) and in Bourne Wood (below)

Wild roses proliferate in the Bourne area during May and June. They are all around us, in the woods and in the hedgerows along the roadside verges, and they look so fragile yet some have the most delicate and exquisite scent but it is dangerous to pick them because they are protected by razor-sharp, hooked prickles that can tear into the skin of the unwary. There are several species but the most familiar is the dog-rose (Rosa canina). This wild ancestor of the garden rose was the symbol of the Tudor kings of England but it is thought to derive its name from an ancient Greek belief that it would cure a person who had been bitten by a mad dog. The flowers can be shell-pink or white and their stems arch and scramble in the hedgerow and twine their way around the trees in the woods. When the petals fall, red berry-like fruit or hips form and these can be made into jelly and syrup because they are rich in Vitamin C. During World War Two, when nourishing food was scarce, the government sent us kids out into the hedgerows to collect them and in 1943 alone, some 500 tons of rose hips were amassed in this way and processed to provide children with rose hip syrup as a supplement to the meagre diet that resulted from food rationing. Today, this vast natural commodity is left to the birds.

Tree mallow flowering in profusion along the footpath in Tennyson Drive

One of the most colourful and prolific shrubs of the urban street scene is rosea or tree mallow (Lavatera olbia) that can reach heights of seven feet. This is a sub-shrub, that is one where the soft top dies back annually, and many gardeners regard them as no better than weeds, but during the summer months they produce large and attractive, shallow, trumpet-like flowers, pink in colour. They present a most attractive sight and one of the best displays in the locality has been been planted alongside the path in Tennyson Drive, the main road into the new housing development now under construction on a greenbelt site off the main A15 road south of Bourne. It is to be hoped that this is not just window dressing to attract potential home buyers and when the developers move out, the flowers and shrubs they have planted with such care to enhance the area will not be left to become overgrown and unsightly.

Meadow crane's bill on the roadside verges south of Wilsthorpe village

Like many of our wild flowers, meadow crane's bill (Geranium pratense) is no longer a common sight in the countryside around Bourne although there are places where clumps can still be seen between June and September struggling to survive the ravages of intensive agriculture. This is a strikingly beautiful perennial of summer meadows and grassy roadsides with bold, deeply-lobed leaves and large bluish-violet flowers. The name crane's bill comes from the long beak-like protrusion attached to the seed vessel and when ripe, this splits into coiling spirals that jerk the seeds out and so assist their distribution to perpetuate the species.

Meadowsweet on the roadside verges near Swinstead

Patches of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) can be found in damp meadows but more likely around Bourne along the moist verges of country roads and its pungent bitter-sweet smell invades the open windows of the car as you pass, a reminder that high summer is here. This perennial, which is also known as Queen of the Meadow, is a tall and erect plant with frothy heads of small creamy-white flowers that can be seen from June until September and in past times was used as a sort of air freshener, strewn on the floors of houses to produce a tangy but pleasant odour indoors, while the flowers were also picked to flavour meals and to make herbal teas. Meadowsweet was also formerly used to ward off malaria when forms of that disease were common on undrained lowland areas of South Lincolnshire.

Tufted vetch on the roadside verge near Stainfield

Tufted vetch (Vicia craccca) looks a tall and elegant perennial but in reality it is a weak-stemmed plant that gains support by clambering over other vegetation and climbs high through tall grass and hedgerows by means of branched tendrils at the tops of ladder-like leaves. The slender spires of small pea flowers open a rather pale purple in colour but fade to a deep violet-blue and can be seen from June to August. Vetches are closely related to beans and peas and were once grown for fodder and examples have colonised many a field's edge.

Field bindweed climbing in the hedgerow on the outskirts of Manthorpe

Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is a climbing plant with delightful pink and white, candy-striped flowers, its funnel-shaped petal tube opening fan-like by day and attracting many sorts of insects. It flowers from June to September and can be found growing on waste ground such as rubbish tips and railway ballast, around the base of electricity pylons and fences and along roadside verges. The long radiating stems of field bindweed spread anti-clockwise in a circle and sometimes twist together, using each other for support. This species is unwelcome in gardens because it is has extremely invasive underground stems and is regarded as a stubborn weed but still looks very attractive when found growing in profusion in country areas.

A rare sight in Bourne Woods, a broom bush by the side of a woodland track

Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius) is an evergreen shrub similar to gorse that can be found on heaths, dunes and in woods in many parts of Britain but there are few in this locality. Its golden scented flowers are favoured by bees and on being touched, they expel pollen on to the undersides of visiting insects. The long, supple branches were once made into brooms for sweeping, hence the name which is derived from the Old English, while the medicinal uses of the brush-like branches are recorded in herbals as early as the 15th century. It was also used as an heraldic device, notably as the badge of Brittany, and is also associated with several popular traditions, including the use of the flowering tops for house decorating at Whitsuntide festivals.

Crown Imperial growing around the village pond at Sapperton during April

Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) are the most unlikely flowers to be found growing in the wild and it is worth a trip to Sapperton, north of Bourne, in spring just to see them. This flower is a type of fritillary, a member of the lily family and native to Turkey, scattered from there as far as Kashmir. They have both orange and yellow forms and are tolerant to our temperate climate and have been planted here by local residents to give extra colour to the village pond.

Germander speedwell along the old railway line near Dyke

Small bright blue flowers can be found in grassy places, hedges and woods between March and July and this delightful plant is the germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys). There are many other country names such as Eye of Christ, Cat's Eye, Bird's Eye and Farewell. It is the commonest of the British species of speedwell and we found these growing along the route of the old railway line between Bourne and Dyke village, now a narrow wildlife corridor through arable land but becoming more overgrown with the passing years and impassable in some places, but still walked by those who are anxious to keep it open as a footpath. The flowers close at night and in rainy weather when the brightness of the blossom disappears and only the pale and pearly underside of its petals are visible. It was valued in past times for its medicinal properties, as a vulnerary, a purifier of the blood, a remedy for various skin diseases, a cure for smallpox and measles and as a panacea for many other ills. It also has a certain amount of astringency and an infusion of its leaves was once famous for coughs.

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