THE unseasonably mild winter so far has moved the Clackmannanshire nature calendar fast forward a couple of weeks compared to the same period last year.

A recent walk down by the River Devon revealed several early signs of spring, including dangling hazel catkins (or lambs-tails as they are often known), the flower-spikes of white butterbur and even a ladybird that had emerged from hibernation. But the star billing belonged to the snowdrops.

“The grass is spangled with thy silver drops," wrote the 18th century poet Charlotte Turner Smith in a tribute to the snowdrop while another contemporary described this wonderful winter flower as “a beauteous gem” that springs forth “amid the bare and chilling gloom”.

The snowdrop is a wild plant that has inspired writers and poets for generations, a shining light against the dark barren winter soil.

But despite the fragile beauty of the petals, the snowdrop is an incredibly tough little plant able to withstand the hardest of frosts and being buried in the snow for days on end. Indeed, William Wordsworth noted the battering that snowdrops so frequently endure from winter storms, “…smitten by the wing of many a furious whirlblast sweeping by”.

In some parts of the country the snowdrop is known as the “snow-piercer” because of the way it pushes its emerging spear through the snow, aided by a protective sheath that covers the tip of the flowering stem.

There is some uncertainty amongst botanists whether the snowdrop is native to the British Isles, but most likely it is an introduced species from mainland Europe, probably first arriving here a few centuries ago for planting in gardens and then becoming widely naturalised. Certainly, the snowdrop is commonly found by human settlements and isolated roadside colonies often mark the sites of demolished cottages.

@BroomfieldKeith