22-Apr London’s Spring Wildflowers: Violets & Anemones

Summary

London’s April Wildflowers: A Violet and Anemone Spectacle

Spring is in full bloom across London’s woodlands and meadows, but can you tell your violets apart? From the sweet violet’s delicate fragrance to the wind anemone’s fleeting beauty, April’s wildflowers offer a dazzling—and deceptive—display of colour. Venture along the North Downs or through Richmond Park to spot rare marsh violets, or discover ghostly white anemones in Morden’s hidden corners. But beware—nature’s palette is full of surprises, and even experts can be fooled!

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Violets and their colours

Colour is a tempting, but by no means the best, way to identify violets. As in March, the main violets to be found this month are hairy Viola hirta, common dog violet V. riviniana, pale wood violet V. reichenbachiana and the sweet violet V. odorata. In early April violets are often at their most prolific as a short walk along the North Downs way from Guilford towards Box Hill will testify. Sweet violets can be violet or white, but if white have a violet or pale violet spur. Those sweet violets that flowered in February will now be going over. Hairy violets are violet with a dark violet spur and rarely white. This compares with the common dog violet, which is usually a pale bluish violet but has a pale spur. It also can be white. Once again, early dog violets are violet, but in this case often have darker centres with noticeable veining. As if this wasn’t troublesome enough, the common dog and pale wood violet sometimes hybridise i.e.V. riviana x reichenbachiana. This hybrid often persists when the other violets have gone, allowing yet another tentative means of identification.

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Two new violets to add to the list this month are the marsh violet V. palustris and heath violet V. canina. The marsh violet is a pale violet with darker veins on its petals, although again sometimes white. It is usually identified by its habitat as it nearly always grows in marshes. This newcomer is rare in London, although it has been recorded from the wetter areas of Black Park and Richmond Park. The heath violet is also uncommon but can be found without too much difficulty on Headley and Deptford heaths.

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Wind anemones

Wind anemones Anemone nemorosa are now a common sight on the woodland floor along the North Downs, all the flower heads nodding together if caught in a breeze. In Greek mythology, they were believed to have appeared where Venus’s tears fell as she wept for Adonis. The Egyptians associated the plant with illness, the Chinese with death, but the Romans preferred to use the flowers as a charm to ward off fevers. The plant is in actual fact poisonous, causing excessive salivation and burning in the mouth. Even bruising the leaves can cause blisters on the hands, possibly accounting for why it is so common. Although quite a spectacle this month, these anemones will disappear underground by the summer, leaving no trace of their presence. Although the flowers have no nectary, they are visited by insects, perhaps drawn by their foxy scent. They rarely set seed and patches increase slowly, expanding as little as one or two metres in a century. This explains why half a wood can be full of their flowers without a trace of one in the other half.

William Robinson, the famous Irish Victorian gardener who championed the use of wild flowers in gardens, recorded a pale blue form A. nemorosa var robinsoniana which now seems to be lost in the wild.

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However there is a range of closely related garden anemones e.g. A. blanda, the Balkan anemone and A. appenina, the blue anemone. With some interbreeding with larger garden forms it is now possible to find lavender, white, blue and violet flowers. Good populations of white anemones can be seen in Morden Park and the wood beside Effingham Junction station. A selection of different coloured garden forms can be seen at Warley Place, where both A. blanda and A. appenina are reported naturalised. Purple anemones can be found in Well Wood.

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