I need a pig..

Day 287 #365DaysWild

Wood anemones are one of our prettiest. Such delicate little nodding flowers with fragile petals.

Typically they adorn the floor of native coppiced

woodland, where the soil is heavy and damp. I saw them first at Notts Wildlife Trust ancient Treswell Wood in the north of the county whilst doing the common bird census in the mid-eighties. En masse their impact stops you in your tracks.

Although they can spread by pollination and seeding .. they’re under-soil rhizomes can be distributed by panage. This is the traditional grazing of pigs in woodland.

The rootling of the pigs disturbs the anemone roots, spreading them to new locations.

Another way is to buy two plants at a garden centre, plant them with more luck than judgement, forget you’ve planted them and then subsequently glory in them after our wet weather.

Their best year yet.

Now I just need a pig…