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Country life
Bluebells, Hyacinthoides
non-scriptus
Bluebells are one of Britain’s best-
known wildflowers, famous for
carpeting woodland floors in their
distinctive shade of deep blue.
Eaglehead & Bloodstone Copse
near Brading is an excellent place
to see this springtime spectacle.
Bluebells are renowned for their
presence in woodlands because
they persist even in dense shade
(an environment in which most
plants struggle), but they are not
restricted to woodland habitats.
This durable little plant has even
been spotted growing alongside
motorways!
In William Turner’s New Herball,
published in 1548, it is said that
their small, white bulbs were
used to make glue, and that the
starch they contain was used to
stiffen the elaborate ruffs worn by
Elizabethan gentry.
It is now illegal to dig up
native bluebell bulbs in most
circumstances, but the greater
threat to the plant is the trampling
of its leaves. Bluebells can survive
without their flowers, but if their
leaves are crushed they will die
from lack of food.
Lords and Ladies, Arum
maculatum
Lords and Ladies may have
the raunchiest character of all
woodland species. In the middle
ages this flower was associated
with love making, and its various
local names often had sexual
connotations – ‘silly lovers’ and
‘Adam and Eve’, to name but a few.
The spadix (the cylindrical
structure inside the outer leaf)
emits a foul smell like rotting
flesh, as well as a slight heat. This
attracts flies, which crawl down the
spathe (the large, outer sheath) and
become trapped by the downwards
pointing hairs on the spadix. Once
trapped, they are resigned to a life
of servitude, pollinating the flowers
until they either die or make their
escape when the spadix withers
after pollination.
This plant is not only a danger
to flies, but can also be harmful to
people – its shiny red berries are
steeped in poison, and could be
fatal if consumed by a child.
Italian Lords and Ladies, a
separate but closely related
species, are nationally very rare,
but they are locally abundant in
the Undercliff near Ventnor.
be found in some herbal remedies.
During the Middle Ages primrose
roots were used to ease nervous
headaches, and consuming the
plant was thought to help cure
gout and rheumatism.
Early Purple Orchid, Orchis
mascula
For centuries, early purple orchids
were associated with love and
reproduction.
Primroses are often found in
woodland clearings, and flower
very early in the year - their name
is thought to derive from the Latin
for ‘first rose’ (prima rosa). The early Greek phy sician
Dioscorides thought this plant to
be prophetic, and declared its two
root-tubers could determine the
sex of a couple’s future children.
Supposedly, if a man ate the larger
tube, the couple would have sons; if
a woman ate the smaller tube, they
would be blessed with baby girls.
The species name vulgaris means
common, but the decline in quality
of habitats such as woodlands
and hedge banks has made this
cheerful, yellow flower far less
widespread than it used to be. Early purple orchids are
widespread across Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight and grow
in abundance at many of our
woodland nature reserves,
particularly in sunny glades.
Primroses were once thought to
have medicinal uses, and can still Visit www.hiwwt.org.uk for more
information.
Primrose, Primula vulgaris
www.visitilife.com
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