This winter-flowering, vanilla-scented plant of waste places and roadsides is not native to Britain, but is a valuable source of nectar for emerging insects in the earliest days of spring.
Photo: Steve Townsend

Also known as Windflower, the Wood Anemone is a flower of early spring, found in woodland glades and old hedgerows.
Photo: Steve Townsend

Wood-sorrel blooms in April and May.
Photo: Amanda Scott

The books may tell you Yarrow flowers until September, but on The Lizard it will often keep going strong into October.
Photo: Steve Townsend

Delicate Yellow Centaury, which blooms in high summer, only opens its tiny flowers in bright sunshine, so go looking in decent weather. Windmill Farm and the Grochall Track are two good places to find it.
Photo: Amanda Scott

It’s easy to see how this fungus got its name. It is most commonly seen from summer to autumn.
Photo: Steve Townsend