THE weather has warmed by a few degrees and suddenly woodland wild flowers are springing up all over the Wee County.

It is a tremendously exciting time and the colour these flowers bring is all the more precious because of the dullness of the preceding months.

Their ecological importance should not be under-estimated either, for they provide vital energy-rich nectar for early emerging bees, butterflies and other insects.

The primrose is perhaps the ultimate beauty and one of the first to flower. The crinkled oval green leaves have been visible for the last month or so, but almost miraculously the pastel yellow flowers suddenly appear.

The softness of the yellow is so compelling that it attracts the eye even from a distance and there is no more stunning sight than a bank of primroses bathed in the sunlight of a dew-filled spring morning.

The name is derived from prima rosa – meaning first rose – and is a reference to its early flowering (although the plant is not a rose).

White star-shaped wood anemones are also bursting into flower in our broadleaved woods, as is lesser celandine, wood-sorrel and greater stitchwort.

The lesser celandine sports sparkling gold flowers that bloom for several weeks. It always looks at its best during fine and settled weather because when it is dull or wet the flower closes-up.

The same is true of the wood-sorrel. It first flowers in April and can often be found growing on moss-covered tree stumps and fallen logs.

It really is worth examining this flower closely, for what from a distance appear as white petals are in fact gently inscribed with lilac.

Along woodland edges, the striking white flowers of greater stitchwort are held aloft on rather straggly stems, with the plant being so named because of its medicinal properties in curing ‘stitches’ and similar pains.

@BroomfieldKeith