Spring woodland flower recce.

A weather forecast of light wind and leaden skies favoured a recce for signs of spring flowers in two local woodlands: one a scowles woodland ~200m a.s.l and the other a Lower Wye Valley woodland ~100m a.s.l. The scowles woodland has gentle slopes underlain by Carboniferous limestone and shales with calcareous soils whilst the Wye valley wood is on a steep slope underlain by Devonian sandstone, mudstone and quartz conglomerate with a range of soil pH from acidic to mildly calcareous.

Ransoms carpet

The scowles woodland flowering was disappointing with only the odd primrose (Primula vulgaris) and carpets of dog's mercury (Mecurialis perennis) in full bloom, sadly dog's mercury is the most unphotogenic of spring wildflowers. Although carpets of ramson (Allium ursinum) leaves hinted at some potential for a future visit later in spring.

An oddity was the scarlet elf cup (Sarcoscypha cocinea) fungus which normally appears in February was still evident in the 1st week of April.

 The Wye Valley wood provided more floral interest with lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), primroses, dog's mercury (Mecurialis perennis), early dog violets (Viola reichenbachianas) and wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) in flower. Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), lords and ladies (Arum maculatum) and ransoms were not in flower.

The wood anemones provided the necessary photographic inspiration. and a welcome break in the cloud allowed sunshine to briefly illuminate the woodland and an image made with some warmth to finish the trip.

Both woodlands had west facing aspects, the difference in flowering between the two woods is possibly due to the ~100m height difference with marginally colder temperatures on the more exposed and elevated scowles woodland and/or the prevalence of drier and warmer soils in the Wye Valley wood on steeper slopes.