Wildflower survey results now available

20 October 2009

Thank you to everyone who took part and entered their wildflower survey results online. We hope you enjoy looking at the animated graphs and maps and wonder how many different expressions you can see on the faces of the flowers.

Have a look on the survey page of the website and see how many wildflowers were recorded in your area.

Here are just a few notes about your recordings

Poppy

Maybe it's because of the vivid red flower of the poppy but just about every region recorded sightings of them. The most popular place appears to have been the East England region; sadly, none were recorded in North Scotland, but that may be because there weren't many people looking.

Buttercup

Buttercups spread so quickly, which probably helped just about every region to record at least one sighting of a buttercup between May and August. You can find buttercups in all sorts of places, from fields to parks and gardens, so it's not surprising that many of you had them in your WildSquare.

Harebell

This proved to be a most elusive species. Most sightings were in Scotland with a few other regions reporting the odd one or two here and there. Harebells are flowers of open heath and moorland and old grassland. There isn't as much of this habitat in England as in Scotland.

Bluebell

South East England recorded the most bluebells in May. Most regions saw bluebells at some point during the survey with May being the most popular month. There are few sights better than a bluebell wood in full flower, but, especially in the north, bluebells may flower out in the open, possibly in places that used to be covered with trees.

White dead-nettle

Wales did not record one sighting of the white dead-nettle and, in Scotland, it was only recorded in the East area. However, it was recorded on a consistent basis throughout the English regions with August being the most popular month.

Foxglove

We hope none of you ate a foxglove! They are poisonous to us, but bees love them. Just about everywhere recorded these distinctive flowers. June proved to be the best month for foxgloves in the East of England

Ramsons

Has the honour of being the least recorded species from this survey. May and June were the best months in East England, SW Scotland and East Scotland. Not one recording of ramsons in South Wales, West Midlands, East Midlands and North East England. This flower lives in broad-leaved woodlands, and the strong garlic smell of its flowers would make it very obvious if you had ramsons in your WildSquare.