May 2026 Ramsbury Nature Notes by Peter Marren

Dandelion Folk name: wet-the-bed!

April is the month for first sightings of spring. We watch the world around us greening and unfolding by the day. The dawn soloists swell into a chorus, the hedgerows burst into leaf, the lovely flowering of the 'blackthorn winter' is followed promptly by the blossom of wild cherry and wild apple and the first tender leaves of oak and beech slip from their buds. Only ash is still bare, apart from its brush-like flowers. Among my earliest dates are oil beetles (on March 2nd), sallow bees visiting catkins (5th), first lambs (14th), and first mayflies (15th). Bluebells were fully out by early April, about three weeks earlier than in my youth. My first butterfly (other than hibernated peacocks and brimstones) was a Speckled Wood on March 30th, soon followed by Green-veined White, Orange-tip, and Holly Blue. The first white butterflies of the year are almost immaculate: that is, they are nearly all white with mere smudges of black.

Early April is peak time for dandelions. The name comes from Norman French - dent-de-lion - and refers to the toothy leaves. We take them for granted, but dandelions are in fact unusual. For a start, they are all female. Although the leonine flowers produce pollen and bees come to collect it, the pollen is non- functional. Instead, the flowers set seed purely in the female line so that their offspring is genetically identical to the parent plant. But occasional mutation does produce variants, differing only in tiny details, but which are nevertheless classed as species. That is why we have at least 250 different kinds of dandelions, though only experts (not me!) can tell them apart. Dandelion leaves are bitter-tasting but edible, either raw in salads or fried, but don't over-indulge for the plant is a diuretic, hence its folk-name, wet-the-bed! Finally, as every gardener knows, the long, thick root of dandelions makes them hard to remove. The root drags the leaves towards the ground, laying them flat and so creating a space among a mass of grass. And with the thousands of feather-light seeds floating in the breeze, no wonder dandelions are so successful!

"Birds of Ramsbury", compiled by Peter Marren on behalf of the Ramsbury Wildlife Group, is available at Ramsbury Post Office. £5