Rosy Garlic

From a distance I thought at first that these delicate pink flowers were Lady’s-Smock also known as the Cuckoo Flower, but closer inspection showed that they were Rosy garlic (Allium roseum) a member of the onion family which has naturalised in the south of England. I found these flowers along a lane-side verge beneath a hedgerow on the edge of the village. It could have been an escapee from the allotments but not necessarily.

Hedgerows and verges are a wonderful place to find wild flowers. If you are a fellow resident living in Greenwood House in Charlton Down (Dorset) and are interested in finding out more about them, I have a free fold-out Field Studies Council “Guide to Hedgerows” to give away with lots of interesting information about plant and animal life in this biodiverse habitat. Just e-mail me on winderjssc@aol.com and I’ll pop it through your letterbox.