"My most exulted sighting came as I drove out of upper Dovedale when, from the corner of my eye, I caught a blanket of gold running over the slope. The flowers held the foreground before the eye travelled onwards to Sheen Hill in Staffordshire. We overuse the word carpet, but in this instance it was appropriate. Each bloom was about the same height as all its neighbours, and if you eliminated gaps in colour by getting down face to face with the flower heads, then the whole land was turned into a single glorious sunshine hue."
"There is an irony here. While dandelions seem a democratic and self-levelling community, they are not one kind. There are about 240 species in Britain. I'm in awe of my friend Baz Scampion, who recently co-published a book on The Dandelions of Shetland, which he acknowledges is a little niche. Yet hats off to him and his co-author for finding 130 species on one archipelago."
"I monitored who'd enjoyed April's dandelions as much as me, and the mowing teams of our borough and many parish councils were not in that number. Love came mainly from bumblebees and various solitary bees in the genus Andrena. They in turn gave me another key moment. I was again in Dovedale at dawn, where, to the tune of redstart and willow warbler songs, there were entire dew-soaked fields glittering with the airfilled silver of dandelion clocks."
"This month added a third encounter. I was above the hamlet of Snitterton and there was a different glimpse of gold. I paced out across the fields, because as far as you could see to the hill crown and beyond were flowering buttercups in hundreds of thousands. The three common species don't observe any concern for equal height and thus their showing is more a vast gold-stippled canvas more Seurat, perh"
Snowdrops in February gave way to dandelions in March, producing a blanket of gold across slopes in Upper Dovedale and toward Sheen Hill. The dandelion blooms formed an even, carpet-like foreground when viewed closely, turning the land into a single sunshine hue. Despite appearing democratic and self-leveling, dandelions include about 240 species in Britain. A book on Shetland dandelions reported 130 species on one archipelago. April’s dandelions were enjoyed mainly by bumblebees and solitary Andrena bees, which led to dawn scenes of dew-soaked fields glittering with dandelion clocks. Above Snitterton, buttercups spread in hundreds of thousands, creating a gold-stippled canvas.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]