It is breathtaking how spring suddenly bursts like a green wave over the country, and this month's blend of sunshine and showers has triggered a magnificent sight as trees and shrubs have come into leaf. The beech flush is now casting a surreal green glow on woodland floors as sunlight filters through the soft young beech leaves. After two wet summers and a soggy winter the beeches are in good health, but before then they endured years of punishing heat and droughts that stopped many from growing.
The new leaves of hornbeam have emerged and are easily mistaken for beech, although the hornbeam leaves have a toothed instead of smooth edge. Hornbeam is renowned for having the hardest wood of any tree in Europe, used for butchers' chopping blocks, cogs in mill gears and gun butts. Its male catkins also look a bit like hops, and are currently shedding their pollen. In fact, the pollen spilling from lots of trees is now creating misery for many hayfever sufferers, and the worst offender is birch pollen. April is the worst time for birch, although it goes through a 2-year cycle of greatest pollen production and this year is due to be a low pollen season.
Apart from trees, now is also the time to enjoy banks of dandelions and daisies craning their flower heads towards the sun, while bluebells, cuckoo flower, and the brilliant white star-shaped wood anemone are now blooming through the country, all of them a touch earlier than the chilly spring last year.
