Winter is the best time to search the woods and hedgerows for low-growing, evergreen shrubs such as Butcher's Broom Ruscus aculeatus and Spurge-laurel Daphne laureola, which in summer can be easily overlooked as they are often hidden by the dense foliage of other species.
Usually less than 1.0m in height, Spurge-laurel has broad, lanceolate, glossy, deep green, leathery, hairless leaves, somewhat like those of true laurel (Laurus) in miniature. A native plant, it is found chiefly on the Chalk and Boulder Clay. Its dense clusters of bright, yellowish-green, tubular, honey-scented flowers with their four starry lobes appear very early in the year and can be seen from January through to April. The ellipsoid fruits, at first green, ripen to black in late summer. Formerly frequent, D. laureola is a decreasing species in Suffolk. Look out for it and send in your records to help produce the new SBRC coverage maps (distribution map and address on the SBRC page)
Colin Hawes
Don't forget you can download the whole of each White Admiral as a .zip file.
(Typically under 700 kb) ~ See the top menu.