Picture: ramsons (wild garlic). Click here for more May woodland, meadow and field flower photos
Woodland flowers are at their best at the start of May, but there is still a fair range of species to see even later in the month.
The most notable change is when the bluebells start to fade. typically at the end of the first week. (But there is a lot of variation from year to year. In the late spring of 2006 and 2013 bluebells did not come out in force till the end of the first week in May and stayed until the end of week three, while in 2010 they came out only at the very end of April and likewise lasted till the end of week three. In 2021, though some were seen from mid April onwards, they were not at their best until the second week of May, fading in the third, but with some in places right up to the end the month. By contrast, in 2011, 2014 and 2019 bluebells were largely over by the start of May. In 2018 they lasted into the first ten days of the month, but a hot third week in April had caused rapid tree foliage growth which shaded out many bluebell woods before they had fully flowered: as a result most never managed to be more than half out.) This late in the bluebell season, growing bracken fronds and cleavers shoots can be a problem in some woods, breaking up the sea of flowers: new leaves also uncurl on hart's tongue.
Lingering on longer than bluebells are ramsons (commonly known as wild garlic, though they are in fact only a relative of the variety we eat) which are at their best in the first half of May (not till the third week in 2021). In places some can even last until later in the month, however, and everywhere at the month's end their dying leaves still give off a pungent garlic smell.
Other April woodland flowers which may survive into the first week of May include lesser celandine, wood anemone, primrose, wood sorrel, violet, ground ivy, ivy-leaved speedwell, wavy bittercress, forget-me-not and goldilocks buttercup (which has narrow leaves and slightly deformed flowers). As soon as they have finished flowering, the yellowing leaves of lesser celandine become a common sight in woods (more so than on verges, where they are overtopped by other vegetation), and later in the month are joined by those of bluebell and wood anemone, bluebell leaves first lying flat almost as soon as flowering is over.
Early in the month you can also see the tall maroon-coloured early purple orchid and the rather inconspicuous flowers of cuckoo pint. The latter are a lot harder to spot than their leaves are earlier in the year or their red seedheads are in later the summer. As the month goes on, the envelope surrounding the flower collapses and by the end of the month the seedheads are forming - a cluster of green berries at this stage.
Woodland flowers lasting longer but fading in the second half include yellow archangel, bugle, garlic mustard, stitchwort and wild strawberry. However red campion and herb robert reliably last till the end of the month. The drooping tassels of pendulous sedge, a plant with thick grass-like blades of vegetation, may still be in yellow flower early in the month. They turn brown once they have gone over, but then go green as they produce their seeds. Dog's mercury (which carpets woodland floors and flowers unnoticed in April) also has green seeds on its female plants.
Cow parsley can sometimes occur occur in woodland: if it has not already come into flower in April, it does so in early May, lasting till the second or third week of the month (right to the end of the month in 2021 and 2023). As mentioned above, cleavers can also cover stretches of woodland floor, as can stinging nettles; both inconspicuously flower in the second half, stinging nettles producing beige tassels and cleavers tiny white stars. Later in the month you may also see some yellow flowers of wood avens (herb bennet).
Other woodland species include wood spurge and the ground-hugging yellow pimpernel, both possible throughout the month, while woodruff, with tiny white flowers and leaves arranged in ruffs to match its name, is often at its best in the second half. Pale mauve wood speedwell, more likely in the first half of the month, is easy to confuse with the more conspicuous germander speedwell, which can also be found in woods throughout May and whose flowers are larger and generally more blue-coloured. Germander speedwell also has several flowers branching off a stalk with small leaves on, while on wood speedwell there are one or two flowers on an otherwise bare tendril.
You also very occasionally find pignut (usually a meadow flower) in woods, where it is an indicator of ancient woodland, while the strange umbellifer sanicle especially likes chalk beechwood. On sandy soils you may come across lily of the valley. All of these can occur throughout May, while in the second half of the month you may see common figwort. Early in the month in the Chilterns or eastern Weald you may just see some surviving coralroot. The first half is also when you might come across three-nerved sandwort, which looks like a kind of woodland chickweed. Towards the end of the month you may start to see foxgloves flowering in woodland clearings.
Meadow flowers
At the start of May meadows still look like ordinary grassy fields and there is no hint of the transformation that is about to take place. But as the month goes on the grass grows taller, flowers increase, and by mid month you are starting to get the full meadow effect. An important contributor to this are meadow buttercups, the classic tall buttercup of haymeadows. A few may be seen right from the start of the month, and from the third week or so they can turn whole fields yellow. (For other buttercups seen in May see Other grassy fields below.)
Meanwhile as the grass grows, more and more of it goes to seed. This makes you realise just how varied it is, with different species such as meadow foxtail (whose seed heads can be seen from the second half of April), timothy, smooth meadow grass, cocksfoot and yorkshire fog. Early in the month the seeding grasses just add further variety to the meadows but towards the end they can start to overwhelm the buttercups a bit.
Look more closely at May meadows and you see all sorts of other flowers. Ribwort plantain puts out a delicate white ring of flowers around its seedhead from around the second week, and at the same time you start to see some clover flowers - usually red clover in meadows. You might also see pignut – a small cow-parsley like flower, once common in hay meadows and cherished for its edible roots (which it is now illegal to dig up...). Just to confuse matters, cow parsley itself very occasionally forms large patches in fields. From mid month common sorrel gives meadows a reddish tinge.
Very rarely in damp meadows you may see beautiful pink ragged robin. The leaves of meadow vetchling are evident but they do not flower yet. Towards the end of the month oxeye daisies can fill some fields or form large patches in others. Sometimes rough hawksbeard or beaked hawksbeard make a good showing in meadows.
On a smaller scale one can see common vetch and, later in the month, grass vetchling - a tiny red flower on grass-like leaves. Hairy tare is another inconspicuous member of the vetch family, which can nevertheless sometimes take over quite large areas of a meadow with its tiny pale pink flowers in the second half.
Also small are the white flowers of common mouse-ear, which look very similar to those of lesser stitchwort, the latter appearing later in May. The difference between them is that lesser stitchwort has delicate smooth stems while mouse-ear's are thicker and hairy. Lesser stitchwort also has a slightly larger flower, usually (though not always) with evenly spaced petals, while in common mouse-ear they are grouped in twos (actually one petal with a big notch in it).
At the very end of the month you may see goatsbeard. This weird plant - which is actually quite common - only opens its yellow flowers in the morning. For the rest of the day all you see is a huge ridged flower bud on a stem with grass-like leaves, or possibly a large grey dandelion-like seedhead.
Other grassy fields
As well as true meadows, in which the grass grows tall, there lots of flowers in May in shorter grassy fields - pasture or other lowland grassland. These too can be dominated by buttercups, but in this case by the shorter bulbous and creeping buttercups. The bulbous buttercup, which has turned down sepals under its flowers, is usually the first to appear, in late April, and prefers drier grassland. Both species can form intense carpets, particularly in fields grazed by horses.
Dandelions can also still cover grassy fields early in the month, but they are going over rapidly. Briefly their famous white seedheads can make a good display but they tend to be all gone by the end of the second week. This is worth noting, because later in May you can see dandelion-like flowers which lead many casual observers to conclude that dandelions flower all summer. In fact, these are hawkbits, hawksbeards and hawkweeds - a confusing group of plants which are described on the May wayside flowers page. One that can occasionally make a good display in grassy fields late in May, as well as on mown suburban verges, is catsear.
Otherwise in shorter grass note such flowers as germander speedwell, which can form big mats, as well as common and sticky mouse-ear - the latter with clusters of often closed flowers crowded on a single head, while common-mouse ear has more separate flowers. In the first three weeks of May (until the fourth week in 2023, the first week of June in 2021) bugle can flower in attractive clumps in damper fields, and some small drifts of cuckoo flower linger on in the same habitat well after they have disappeared from path and road waysides. In 2021 ground ivy also lasted into the second week.
As the month goes on you also see ribwort plantain appearing, and you may occasionally see yellow rattle, as well as black medick (another mat-former, which despite its name has a yellow flower). An extremely diminutive grassland flower, which could at first glance be mistaken for the eyebright you see on downland in the summer, is thyme-leaved speedwell.
In addition May is a fabulous month for daisies. Though these are more seen in parks, where they can form intense carpets if the grass is left uncut, they also appear in short grass elsewhere, for example on paths and in fields grazed by horses. Dovesfoot cranesbill crops up in mown or short grass too, as does small-flowered cranesbill; more rarely also common storksbill. At the start of the month you may also see the mauve-coloured slender speedwell, which could be mistaken at a casual glance for germander speedwell.
White clover can also occur in mown grass, and is seen on grazed fields or paths (it is an indicator of places that are trodden by horses or animals, apparently), with red clover in less trodden spots. Early in the month (until the third week in 2021) you may still find good displays of cowslips in grassy fields on chalky soils.
Rougher fields are dotted with the large leaves of dock (often curled dock or broad-leaved dock) which has similar flowers to common sorrel (see Meadow flowers above), and which may be starting to bloom towards the end of the month. Creeping, spear and marsh thistle plants also grow upwards, though do not flower yet. Sheep's sorrel, a much smaller version of common sorrel, forms rust-coloured patches in shorter grass, particularly on heathland. In the same habitat you can see the four-petalled yellow flowers of tormentil, and just occasionally, heath speedwell.
More May pages:
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