Wildflowers

Britain's wildflowers are among the most quietly spectacular things this country produces. They don't advertise themselves. They grow at the edges — of paths, of fields, of car parks — and wait for someone to slow down enough to notice them. Most people don't. That's their loss.

This section collects field notes and photography from Britain's native and naturalised wildflowers, season by season. From the red dead nettle that feeds the first bumblebees of the year before most people have thought about spring, to the cherry blossom that lasts four days if you're lucky and demands you pay attention while it does. Every subject here was photographed in the field, in Britain, at the moment it happened.

The aim isn't to be encyclopaedic. It's to make a convincing case that the wildflower growing in the verge by the roundabout you drive past every morning is worth stopping for. It usually is.