On the Wildside: The joy of finding Goldilocks deep in the bluebell woodlands

Indeed, I had walked past whilst my brain slowly clicked into gear. Essentially, what was a buttercup doing in the middle of a bluebell wood and also, what was it doing in flower so early in the year?

One of our earliest flowering woodland plants is the buttercup cousin, the lesser celandine, but that is quite tiny, and forms extensive mats close to the ground, whereas this flower was rather upright and erect. Other common members of the buttercup family are the meadow buttercup which is elegant and upright but loves open, sunny meadows, and the bane of gardeners’ lives, the creeping buttercup.

This latter species grows in damp, shady places and again, is rather low to the ground. Both these species, meadow and creeping, also tend to flower in the later spring and summertime. The deeply cut leaves were a further clue, and the bright yellow petals, which in the case of goldilocks are frequently partly missing, were confirmation.

Local floras for the region confirm that this is indeed very uncommon locally, although this sighting has set me thinking. I have searched for this plant in vain over the years, and I wonder if it is a matter of the ‘early bird catching the worm’. In early April amongst the massed bluebells, the rather erect , bright yellow buttercup stands out very clearly, whereas by summertime, with its flowers gone over, the plant would be easy to overlook.

Perhaps I have been looking at the wrong time and instead should have been searching for a buttercup in a woodland and in the early spring. I wonder if this pretty little flower is not so rare as we are led to believe. It was good to find!

Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer & broadcaster on wildlife & environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected]; follow Ian’s blog (https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress.com/) and Twitter @IanThewildside