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