Here are photographs of nine garden or wild plants that were in flower during May in central England. The weather during this period has been mainly sunny with very little rain. Dates when photographs were taken are in brackets.

The Early Marsh Orchid Dactylorhiza incarnata flowers from late May to late June in damp grassland and marshes throughout Britain. It is up to 40cm in height. It has no scent and produces no nectar but deceives inexperienced pollinators such as bumblebees, possibly because it is found in remote marshy areas where there are few rewarding flowers for pollinators. It grows from a root tuber and occurs widely across Eurasia as far as Siberia.

Here are 2 Fritillary species that flower in April and May.  One is a wild flower, the other is a garden favourite. The Fritillary genus Fritillaria has over 100 species. It is in the Lily family.

Snake’s Head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris is a wild flower native to Europe and western Asia.  It was cultivated as a garden ornamental in Tudor Britain but was not recorded growing wild until 1736. It normally grows  in damp meadows but elsewhere may have escaped from gardens. The common name ‘Snake’s Head’ refers to its snake-like drooping flower head.  The word ‘fritillary’ refers to the flower’s chess board pattern and is also used as the common name for a group of butterflies.  

Crown Imperial Fritillaria imperialis ‘Maxima Lutea’ is a cultivar commonly planted in gardens in Britain. It was introduced in the 16th century from Turkey where it is found in the same areas as the original species of Crown Imperial Fritillaria imperialis.

The Crown Imperial flowers are protandrous (anthers shed pollen before the stigma is receptive) and have nectaries (at the base of the tepals). They are pollinated by bees and wasps and, in Britain, by Blue Tits and Great Tits. 

Trees photographed during one week in mid April in an urban setting in Central England. Maximum daytime temperature has been 19c with long sunny periods, no overnight frosts and hardly any rain. Ash is just coming into leaf. Oak leaves appeared around April 14th.

Bluebells and Wild Garlic  are in flower now in many woodlands. The two species often grow in the same wood but hardly ever grow together. They form large clumps and out-compete one another. Wild garlic comes into leaf earlier than bluebell and so may have a  competitive advantage. Bluebells need more light than wild garlic and so like the dappled light of a woodland before the tree canopy shades the ground.  The presence of Bluebells and Wild Garlic is an indicator that the woodland has existed for a very long time.

The two species are members of different families. Bluebells are members of the Asparagus family which has 114 genera and 2900 species and includes Agave, Camassia, Hosta, Yucca,  Asparagus,  Hyacinth, Grape hyacinth, Bluebell, Squill and Star of Bethlehem. Wild Garlic is an allium ( similar to the garden alliums)  and is a  member of the  Daffodil family – which has1600 species including Alliums, Agapanthus,  Snowdrop, Snowflake, Nerine, Belladonna Lily and Daffodil. 

This photo shows the superior, green ovary with an erect pale blue style, topped by a receptive stigma. Four of the 6 stamens are shown loaded with yellow pollen. 3 stamens are short and three long. The 6 blue tepals are fused into a tube. To avoid self-pollination it is thought that the  female stigma is fertile before the male anthers release pollen. 

By mid-June the fruits have formed. 

The fruits contain seeds. Some farmers now collect the seeds and sell them to gardeners. In woodlands the plants usually spread by bulb division and so form large clumps but can regenerate from seed.

The abnormally sunny and warm weather has brought on flowering and leaf formation in many species. Here is a selection of trees and flowers noted in April 2020. In some tree species, such as the Weeping Willow, Dwarf Cherry and Japanese Flowering Cherries, the flowers form before the leaves but in others, such as the Horse Chestnut, the leaves emerge before the flower buds have opened.