It’s a delight to find a profusion of cowslips in our lawn this year (even if it does make it difficult to mow).

I loved cowslips as a child, but for many years hardly saw one, as they seemed to become rarer with the general decline in wildflowers in the UK.

It’s good to find that motorway banks are now often seeded with wild flowers, including cowslips, which seem to be making a comeback.

Cowslips are attractive to bees, butterflies and moths as well as caterpillars, so are important for the food chain, as well as being so pleasurable to look at.

I read that the cowslip is sometimes known as ‘Key flower’ or ‘Key of Heaven’ from a legend that they first grew from the ground where St Peter dropped his keys. This is recorded in the French, German, and Old English names (clef de Saint Pierre, Schlusselblumen, and Key of Heaven respectively). 

I think I’ll stick to cowslip – one of the first flowers I learned to identify.