1. Papaveraceae (Poppy family)
Chelidonium majus (Greater Celandine)
ID tips: Grey-green, pinnately-lobed leaves with orange latex, flowers like small yellow poppies. Poisonous!
Habitat: Hedgebanks, walls and waste ground, flowers April-August.
2. Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Tussilago farfara (Colt’s-foot)
ID tips: Solitary flower heads (capitulum) on erect scaly leafless stems leaves cordate and white felted below, appearing after the flowers.
Habitat: Waste ground, arable land and disturbed ground, often on clay, flowers March-May.
3. Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)
Ranunculus auricomus (Goldilocks Buttercup)
ID tips: Hairless perennial, buttercup like but unusual in having basal leaves kidney shaped, lower stem leaves three-lobed with narrow divisions and small flowers often distorted with missing petals.
Habitat: Woods, flowers April-June.
4. Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)
Ficaria verna (Lesser Celandine)
ID tips: Perennial with long-stalked leaves, cordate (heart-shaped) fleshy and glossy green, three oval sepals and 8-12 very glossy yellow petals.
Habitat: Woods, meadows, hedgebanks, flowers March-May then dies back.
5. Fabaceae (Pea Family)
Cytisus scoparius (Broom)
ID tips: Erect shrub without spines, small stalked leaves with 1-3 leaflets, large golden-yellow pea flowers on stalks.
Habitat: In scrub and heathy areas on dry acid soils, flowering April-June.
6. Asteraceae (Daisy Family)
Senecio vulgaris (Groundsel)
ID tips: Annual weed, with weak erect stems and cottony, pinnately lobed leaves, upper leaves clasping and lower leaves stalked, flowers usually with disc (tube) florets only, capitula in clusters and involucral bracts often black tipped.
Habitat: Disturbed arable and waste ground, flowers all year.
7. Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)
Ranunculus bulbosus (Bulbous Buttercup)
ID tips: Erect hairy perennial with a basal tuber, leaves three-lobed, flower stalk grooved and flower with sepals bent back (reflexed), this combination of characters distinguishes it from the similar R. repens and R. acris.
Habitat: Dry grassland especially on chalk, flowering April –June.
8. Primulaceae (Primrose Family)
Primula veris (Cowslip)
ID tips: Rather like Primrose but the leaves are more wrinkled and the leaf stalks tapered to the base, flowers 10-30 in an umbel, spreading and drooping.
Habitat: Meadows, grassland and open woods on calcareous or basic soils, flowers March-June.
9. Asteraceae (Daisy Family)
Senecio squalidus (Oxford Ragwort)
ID tips: Annual or perennial, more spreading in habit than Common Ragwort (S.jacobaea), leaves hairless and pinnately lobed, all the lobes narrow and pointed, capitulum bright yellow with tube and ray florets.
Habitat: Introduced (from Italy) and naturalised on waste ground, walls and roadsides, flowers March-December.
10. Asteraceae (Daisy Family)
Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia (Common Dandelion)
ID tips: The most familiar Asteraceae, although in reality Taraxacum is a very complex group of apomictic (asexual) microspecies. Perennial with tap root and rosette of lobed and toothed leaves with hollow leaf stalk, capitulum solitary on hollow leafless stalk with white latex when broken.
Habitat: Very common everywhere, flowers February-June.
NB ID tips etc modified from Rose & O’Reilly The Wildflower key.