Despite the evil spring weather so far I decided to do some work on the flowers now in bloom.

The idea came to me on a day of pouring rain when Keith and Mary Hall, of Downham, brought me a book. It was called ‘A Pocket Book of British Wild Flowers’ published way back in 1937.

The illustrations are a delight and reading the book set me thinking about the fact and folklore of our East Lancashire flowers.

The Mayflower flourishes in damp meadows and there has been no shortage of these this spring. The plant has also been known as ladies smock and cuckoo flower.

Ladies smock comes from the fact that the pale lilac flowers are shaped like that garment worn in the old days.

Cuckoo flowers is another blast from the past and indicates that the flower bloomed at the same time as the cuckoo arrived from their migration. Alas this bird is becoming ever rarer in Britain.

The scientific name is Cardamine from the Greek word for heart.

It was said to strengthen the heart and was used at times as a possible cure for epileptic fits.

Spiky flowers sign for teeth

Toothwort is one of the strangest of plants because it is not green but is a parasitic species.

The spike-like flowers are the only part of the plant to be seen above ground and the plant relies on its nourishment by sucking the sap from the roots of the hazel.

The roots of the toothwort are so strong that they can actually penetrate into roots of the host plant. This is helped by a secretion produced by a toothwort.

The plant takes its name because the flowers look like a human jaw with teeth sunk into it.

Long ago people believed in what was known as the doctrine of Signatures.

This stated that God had labelled plants so that if one looked like a human organ then it could be used to cure it. Thus we have lungworts, liverworts and toothworts.

Thirsty drunk was once used to decorate statue in church

MARSH marigold is a perennial plant which can only thrive in very wet areas.

It was once called the drunkard because it was picked for its attractive yellow flowers, soon wilted, and had to be given fresh water almost every hour.

The thick juicy stems can be a foot high and marsh marigolds were said to be the first flowers to appear at the end of the last Ice Age when the glaciers were melting.

Any of our local ditches will have marsh marigolds growing now and especially in places like our old mill lodges.

At one time the plant was called Mary Buds because in the old days Catholic churches decorated the statues of the Virgin Mary with the flowers.

Touching the stems can sometimes irritate the skin, but in some parts of Germany the young flower buds were pickled and used in salads.