Andrew Dawson’s stunning photo was taken by the By Brook. The next two photos are of the Cuckoo flowers which have appeared on the lower, wetter part of Watergates. Pratensis means “of the meadow” and a damp meadow is where it likes to be.
“Cuckoo flower” comes from the timing of its flowering with the arrival of the cuckoo, sadly now more a reminder of loss. Other common names include “milkmaids”, especially in dairy farming Cheshire where it is the County flower. “Lady’s smock” is said to relate to the petal shape. Like so many of our ancient wildflowers, there is a lot of folklore. The name “fairy flower” came from a belief that Cuckoo Flowers were sacred to fairies. Bringing them inside was deemed unlucky and even picking it could provoke a thunderstorm (“thunder flowers” was another local name). In some parts of England it was thought it attract adders, and picking it would mean you would be bitten before the year was out.
Like other members of this family, every part of the plant is edible, the leaves having a peppery watercress flavour. It is high in Vitamin C, was used to treat scurvy, and had some herbal medicine use for kidney stones and digestion problems. The superstitions around picking it probably limited its herbal and culinary use.
These days we have a more pressing reason to let it thrive. It is one of the two main food plants of the orange tip butterfly (also the green-veined white), the other being garlic mustard (jack in the hedge)which is beginning to flower now. I don’t have a male orange tip photo but Chris Wood’s photo shows the subtle underwing markings of a female orange tip which spent the night on the flower in his garden.
Look for the orange tip butterfly’s small orange egg. Usually only one per plant. The butterfly seems to be able to detect if the plant is already ‘taken’ so avoiding competition for food. The green caterpillars are well disguised lying along the seed pods. They leave the plant to pupate, attaching themselves to a nearby woody stem - all the more reason to not strim things away in Autumn!
But why does the orange tip favour the cuckoo flower? The butterfly takes up mustard oil from its foodplant - the orange tips are a “leave me alone - I taste bad” advert to predators. Orange tip butterfly