Yellow coltsfoot is one of the first wildflowers to emerge in spring
MANY NATURALISTS HAVE WONDERED why so many of Britain’s early spring flowers happen to be yellow. The roll call includes lesser celandine, marsh marigold, primrose, cowslip, daffodil (the native variety of which can be seen in Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, south-west Wales and a few other places), dandelions and coltsfoot. The last of these looks superficially like a dandelion, with golden flowerheads made up of many separate strands, or florets, yet is a pretty distinctive wildflower.
In fact, it has two types of floret – darker orange ones in the central disc, from which longer yellow ones radiate to form a shaggy wheel. Coltsfoot flowers in March and April, usually at the edges of fields and in rough, stony ground, or even poking through tarmac and paving stones. Its curious stems are pale purple and weirdly fleshy, but oddest of all, there are no leaves until much later in spring.