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This autumn, help us find Britain’s most colourful and important fungi – waxcaps.
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Sarcoscypha austriaca
Scarlet Elfcup can be found in damp, shady areas, growing on dead hardwood on the woodland floor. They are often surrounded by moss and can be found throughout Britain and Ireland.
The name “elfcup” comes from folklore, where woodland elves were said to drink or bathe in water collecting in the cups of the fungus.
The Scarlet Elfcup is often confused with the Ruby Elfcup Sarcoscypha coccinea. It requires a microscope to tell the difference between these two species!
Fungi underpin the health of our environment and are key to resolving the climate, ecological and societal challenges we face. Your donation could help increase understanding of fungi and get them the support they need.
Auricularia auricula
This fungus is commonly found on dead or dying wood. While it’s easiest to spot between January and April, it can be found all year round.
There are several other species of jelly fungi:
This fungus was previously only found on Elder trees. Over the last 50 years, it has spread to a much wider range of host tree species, and can now be found on at least 16 species of tree!
This autumn, help Plantlife find Britain’s most colourful and important fungi – waxcaps.
Daldinia concentrica
Find this fungus growing on dead or dying wood, particularly Ash and Beech.
There are many other fungi which produce tough black crusts on deadwood, however most of these produce much smaller fruit bodies than King Alfred’s Cakes.
The common name of this fungus refers to its appearance resembling burnt cakes! As the story goes, a woman giving shelter to Alfred asked him to watch her cakes cooking. He let the cakes burn, and tried to hide the evidence by scattering them in the woodland.
This fungus also makes a great firelighter! The fruit bodies can smoulder for a long time when lit, so may also have been used to transport a flame when on the move.
Anemone nemorosa
One of the first flowers of spring, Wood Anemones bloom like a galaxy of stars across the forest floor.
As a species it’s surprisingly slow to spread (six feet in a hundred years!), relying on the growth of its root structure rather than the spread of its seed. As such, it is a good indicator of ancient woodland.
Wood Anemone has solitary star-like white flowers with 5-8 petals, often pinkish underneath. Long-stalked stem leaves divided into three lobes, with each lobe divided.
Colonies of Wood Anemones with purple or purple-streaked petals are frequent in Norfolk, but the sky-blue type (var. caerulea) is much rarer or possibly lost. It was a favourite of William Robinson, the 19th century pioneer of ‘wild gardening’ who carefully distinguished it from the occasionally naturalised European blue anemone.
You can find Wood Anemone in deciduous woodlands, particularly ancient ones. It can also be found in hedges and shaded banks. In the Yorkshire dales it is frequently found in limestone pavements. In many places the colonies could be relics of previous woodland cover, but its liking for light (it only opens fully in sunshine and does not grow in deep shade) suggests that it may not have purely woodland origins.
Wood Anemone flowers from March to April
Viola odorata
Sweet Violet is a low, creeping plant with fragrant flowers, usually blue-violet or white. It has a long and rather romantic history in European and Asian folklore: the ancient Greeks first used it to make perfume and the Romans to make wine. Ancient Britons used it for cosmetics. Medieval French troubadours used it to represent constancy in their tales of chivalrous love.
Sweet violet’s leaves are broad and glossy and like the stems are covered with fine hairs. Both flowers and leaves grow from a central tuft.
Sweet Violet is widespread throughout most of England, although it’s less widespread in the north. In Scotland and Wales its distribution is even patchier: a wildflower of woodland margins and shady hedgerows, it tends to avoid the more mountainous regions.
The best time to see Sweet Violet is from March to May.
Caltha palustris
Also known as ‘kingcups’, Marsh-marigold could be one of our most ancient plants. It is thought that it was growing here before the last Ice Age!
Marsh-marigold is a member of the buttercup family, a large, almost luxuriant version of its smaller cousin with bright yellow flowers and dark, shiny leaves. The latter are kidney shaped and quite waxy to touch – although doing so too often is best avoided: like all buttercups the marsh-marigold is poisonous and can irritate the skin.
Marsh-marigold is widespread throughout Britain. It can be found in wet meadows, marshes and wet woodlands and grows well in shade.
Marsh-marigold is a common native species, whose distribution remains relatively stable in Britain. It is, however, locally threatened by drainage and agricultural improvement of its wet grassland habitat. Loss of habitat through drainage and abandonment is therefore one of the key threats to Marsh-marigold.
Marsh-marigold is also known as Mayflower – the name of the ship that carried the Pilgrim fathers to America. In Lancashire it is known as ‘the publican’ – maybe a reflection of its sturdy nature!
Lamium purpureum
Red Dead-nettle is traditionally known as the ‘bumblebee flower’ in some British counties as bumblebees love it! Other names include ‘sweet archangel’ and ‘bad man’s posies’. Red Dead-nettle is related to the stinging nettle but has no sting – hence the ‘dead’ in ‘dead-nettle’.
Red Dead-nettle has whorls of pink-purple flowers clustered amongst leaves towards the top of the plant. The aromatic leaves are hairy, heart-shaped and have toothed edges. Some leaves near the top of the plant take on a purple tint. This plant can be mistaken for henbit dead-nettle which has similar flowers. They can be differentiated because Red Dead-nettle leaves have short petioles (leaf stalks).
Found throughout the UK, Red Dead-nettle likes arable and waste land and can also be found in gardens, hedgerows and on roadsides.
Red Dead-nettle has a long flowering season that can begin in February and last until November.
Viola reichenbachiana
Early by name, early by nature: the Early Dog-violet is the first of the violets to bloom.
While its cousin, the Common Dog-violet, traditionally flowers in April, the Early Dog-violet pops up in March, or earlier if the local climate has been unseasonably mild. The unscented flowers of both violets are similar but the Early Dog-violet has a darker purple spur behind the petals.
The Early Dog-violet is found across central, eastern and southern England growing on hedge banks and in chalk woodlands. It is an indicator species for ancient woodland.
Early Dog-violet is categorised as least concern, so there is a good chance that you will be able to spot it if you look for it in the right places!
Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp pseudonarcissus
Our native Daffodil is smaller than many garden varieties but is still a striking sight in early spring.
The Daffodil is also known as the ‘Lent lily’ or ‘Easter lily’ since it often blooms and fades within the Lenten period. The wild Daffodil is smaller than horticultural varieties, with paler petals and a deep yellow trumpet-like tube. The leaves are grey-green, thin, long and flattened. It grows in groups so can be quite an impressive sight.
The native Daffodil is found in damp woods, fields, grassland and orchards.
It is a rare plant but can be abundant in some areas. The ‘golden triangle’ around the Gloucestershire villages of Newent and Dymock is famous for its wild woodland Daffodils.
A 10-mile footpath known as ‘The Daffodil Way’ runs through woods, orchards and meadows, in which the wild Daffodil is rarely out of sight. These colonies have built up over hundreds of years. It currently survives in patchy populations, often scattered across the western side of Britain.
Wild Daffodils are best spotted in the spring months of March and April.
Once one of the most common wild flowers to be found in the English and Welsh countryside, the wild Daffodil declined mysteriously in the mid-nineteenth century. Picking by passers-by doesn’t seem to have been the cause – Daffodils are relatively resistant to this practice. A more likely culprit was the simultaneous fall in cash-crops grown by locals hoping to capitalising on the flower’s popularity, combined with agricultural intensification and mismanagement of its habitat.
There is a risk that wild Daffodils will hybridise with the cultivated varieties.
Tussilago farfara
Colt’s-foot is a bright, yellow daisy and is one of the first wild flowers to emerge in Spring.
The single flowers are held on scaly, crimson stems. As these start to die back, flat-fans of dark green leaves appear. These leaves are silver-white on their undersides.
Colt’s-foot grows in a range of habitats with open or disturbed ground, including arable land, waste land, shingle and scree, and even landslips. It grows particularly well in waste, rough and cultivated places where there is poor drainage.
Colt’s-foot is one of the early arrivals of spring. The best time to see it is throughout March and April.
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