Plantlife recently announced that England's favourite wildflower is the bluebell - but there's beauty beyond blue to be enjoyed in our countryside, as Tessa Wardley discovers
When walking through the countryside, notice the variety of colours and structures of plants and see how they vary as the landscape changes. Now see if you can identify the following:
Chalk Grassland
Buttercups, Hairy Violet, Red Closer, Knapweed, cowslip, Kidney Vetch and several orchids species
Pastures and Meadows
Daisies, buttercups, Red Clover, Tufted Vetch, Meadowsweet, Field Scabious and Yellow Iris
Acid Grassland
Yellow broom, gorse, foxgloves, Tormentil
Lowland Heaths
Heathers, broom, foxgloves and orchids.
Heathlands
Bell heathers, ling and autumn berries such as bilberries and crowberries.
Mountain Meadows
Purple Saxifrage, Moss Campion, Alpine Cinquefoil, Wood Crane’s-Bill and Wild Angelica.
Spot unsual flowers at Norbury Park, White Downs and St John the Evangelist churchyard, Hurst Green
Check out an excerpt from Tessa Wardley's new guide The Countryside Book
