Wildlife Watch: Snake's head fritillary

In addition to the pet breed focus and what with the arrival of spring I thought it would be a good idea to shine a spotlight on some of the wildlife we have here in the UK and have a look at a different species every month. The arrival of spring is brings with it some notable plants into flower and I thought I'd talk about an usual one called the Snake's head fritillary.

The Snake's head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) is an unusual and distinctive looking plant with crimson and white checkered petals than droop into lampshade-like blooms. They grow on pale grey-green slender stems up to 30cm with thin tapering leaves. They typically grow through March and open to flower in April to May.

These flowers used to be commonly found in damp meadows, particularly in the Thames valley where they used to be cut and sold at markets. Through the drainage of wetland areas such as flood plains, and the intensification of agricultural practices we have lost around 95% of our lowland meadows in the UK. Now native snake's head fritillaries are quite rare to find and can only be found in a few ancient hay meadows. However they may be found planted as they are a popular plant often sold in garden centres.

There are still a few places where you can see them flowering in wet meadows, some putting on impressive displays. One of the best known is the North Meadow at Cricklade National Nature Reserve near Swindon in Wiltshire. There's even a website for the site that will keep you updated on how close they are to flowering. Other notable meadows include those at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Fox Fritillary meadow in Suffolk. The latter is only open to the public one day a year to see the blooms; which this year is on April 18th. If you live nearby these places are certainly worth a visit. Sadly it'll be too far for me so I'll just have to wait for my planted one in my garden to flower.