cuckooflower

Cardamine pratensis

• Also known as Lady's smock
   
• Pretty, white-pinkish, slightly cupped flowers
   
• Long, elegant stems
   
• Lower leaves with rounded leaflets
   
• Upper leaves with narrow leaflets.
   

Where found

Damp grassland, woods, roadsides, ditches, river banks and pond edges.
 

When to look for

• Flowering April-June but sometimes earlier

Did you know?

• It's alternative name of  Lady’s smock originates from Tudor times
  
  
• The range of the cuckoo flower has been reduced due to the drainage of many of our wetlands
  
  
• The plant was said to be sacred to the fairies, therefore unlucky to bring the flowers indoors
  
  
• Cuckoo flower leaves were once used as a substitute for watercress, to which it is closely related
  

Over the last few decades the cuckoo flower has been seen flowering very early during warm springs. What impact might this have on species that depend on it for food?

The orange tip butterfly for instance lays its eggs on flower buds and caterpillars feed on the developing seed pods. It’s important that the eggs are laid on the flower at the right stage so the caterpillar has enough to eat.

The evidence at the moment is that in spring adult orange tips are emerging ready to mate and lay eggs earlier too - so this food chain is coping with our changing climate. There may be many others that struggle, however.