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Cowslip
(Primula veris )
Cowslip © Laurie Campbell
One of the best known spring flowers, cowslips are both an adornment of pastures and banks and a nostalgic symbol of the once flower-rich pastures of rural England.
They are a very distinctive plant, with deep yellow cup-shaped flowers that nod in bunches at the end of of their tall stems. Its leaves are wrinkled and can grow up to 15cm long.
A popular wildflower, it was voted the County Flower of no less than three counties: Northamptonshire, Worcestershire and Surrey.
You can adopt cowslip as part of the Plantlife ‘Adopt a Flower’ scheme. It is one of the flowers we keep track of in our Wildflowers Count survey - click here to find out how you can help out.
Distribution
Found across England and Wales, although scarcer in more upland areas. Also found in much of Scotland - especially the east coast - although rarer in the Highlands.
Habitat
Open woods, grassy places and meadows.
Best time to see
Cowslips are at their best when in flower, from April to May.
Did you know?
The name cowslip allegedly derives from the term ‘cowslups', basically meaning cowpat! They flowered where a cow had ‘slupped'.
The ‘freckled cowslip' appears in Shakespeare's Henry V as a sign of fertile and well-managed pasture.