Country diary: Common milkwort looks light enough to take flight | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Bideford, Devon: Once picked for garlands, today this quiet treasure is best left where it is as it becomes scarcerI glimpse a lilac in the green. A hushed colour that suits the early hour. This common milkwort amid the grass is delicate and slight. The flower has an unusual structure, with an outer set of green sepals and an inner set of wing-like purple ones enclosing the tubular fused petals. The effect is intricate and poised, as if the bloom has landed for a moment in the grass but is equally capable of taking flight. Still holding the morning's dew, it is ephemeral, light.The blooms can also be found in blue, pink or white - leading to another of the plant's names, "four sisters", for the four possible colours - but here it is a pale purple accent in the green. A number of its other common names reveal a past use in Christian processions - "rogation flower," "cross flower", "Christ's herb". Then it was picked for garlands, but today it is better left where it is. While locally frequent and widespread in grasslands, particularly those with chalky soils, and in terrains including cliffs and rock outcrops, verges and alkaline-to-neutral fens, this "common" milkwort has become rarer as agricultural intensification has reduced and degraded its habitats. Continue reading...