Plantwatch: Snowdrops are in their element

The cold weather hasn't helped bring on spring flowers, but lesser celandines are coming into bloom, especially in southern England. These relatives of buttercups have glossy yellow flowers and heart-shaped leaves, and the flowers also have the uncanny knack of swivelling round to track the sun like little solar energy dishes, trapping the sun's warmth to entice early insects into the flower; but when skies turn overcast and rain threatens the petals close shut.

Snowdrops are now at their best and most widespread in many damp places, especially in wet woods and on the banks of streams, their drooping white bell flowers nodding and swaying in the wind and smelling sweet of vanilla or honey. They are able to survive the cold of winter and flower so early because they grow from bulbs, and most colonies of snowdrops in Britain reproduce by their bulbs dividing, rather than being pollinated by insects.