I AM addicted to the haugh between Dollar and Tillicoultry in spring and a recent sunny day provided the perfect opportunity to seek out wildflowers on the flood meadows of the River Devon.

The most abundant flower was cuckooflower.

The colour of the delicate petals can vary from almost white to deep mauve, and according to John Gerard, the 16th century herbalist, the plant is so-called because it blooms "for the most part in April and May, when the cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant note without stammering".

The plant is also sometimes known as 'lady's-smock' because of the shape of the flowers, although the name may also allude to cavorting between men and women in spring-time meadows.

It is a truly wonderful flower, and the plant is important food-plant for orange-tip butterflies, which also abound on the haugh at this time of year.

By a boggy pool, the brilliant yellow blooms of marsh marigold shone out like orbs of joyous sunshine.

The plant is also known as the kingcup, which apparently derives from the old English word cop, meaning a 'button' or 'stud' such as kings once wore.

The flowers can vary in size, and those that I've found by high altitude and exposed burns in the Cairngorms are much smaller and more trailing than marsh marigolds that occur in Clackmannanshire.

Where woodland encroached onto the haugh, wood anemones abounded. The name anemone is derived from Greek which means 'windflower'.

It is a most appropriate name, for when the wind blows, its white petals quiver and shake in quite delightful fashion.

It is a characteristic plant of ancient woodland and its presence in hedgerows and fields is a likely indicator of the former presence of long-standing forest.

My best find during my wander across the haugh was meadow saxifrage

It is a scarce plant in this part of Scotland and is declining due to our precious meadows being built upon and land drained for agriculture.

Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, claimed meadow saxifrage had special medicinal powers that were effective in treating gallstones.

It is doubtful whether any credence can be lent to such a fanciful notion, but many other of our wild plants do exhibit curative properties for other ailments, and as such, have been deeply engrained in our culture since the earliest of times