I happened upon a carpet of star shaped flowers today. A woodland of wild garlic. Not quite as impressive as a forest floor of bluebells, but lovely all the same. Also known as Ramsons & Bear’s Garlic, the leaves of Wild Garlic can be made into a pesto or shredded finely into wild garlic scones.
Ramsons are an indicator of ancient woodland. Thousands of bulbs together create a dazzling white carpet like this one.
The second half of its Latin name ‘Allium Ursinum’ refers to the fact that brown bears who used to roam on British soil, fed on the bulbs. The only bear like creature I saw was a black Labrador!
Where Ramsons flower in April to June, so too do Cuckoo Pints. These unusual hooded plants often share the same habitat as Wild garlic, but they are definitely not edible.
A woodland in Spring is such a magical place. ☺️
sunshine and celandines 
Love your black bear!! And the carpet of flowers. Did Hugo smell pungent after romping in the Ramps?
He was straight in the river after , so didn’t notice. Phew! X
Hugo is so very cute! 😁
Thanks. I couldn’t resist posting the photos. 🙂
Beautiful x
It was stunning Christine. Xx
There’s a strong odour (I don’t think it’s unpleasant) from wild garlic too. That’s why it’s also known as “stinking nellie”!
Ha! Love it. Yeh it did smell very garlicky.
Lovely! And Hugo looks adorable in the middle of them.
He enjoyed running through the garlic. Lucky no one was foraging at the time! X
Lovely photos and Hugo looks as cute as ever 🙂 x
Aw thanks xx
How beautiful. I love to see the wild garlic and also wood anemone at this time of year both like a sparkly white carpet. Love your ‘bear’ amongst the Ramsons:)
That should have been the title of this post ‘bear’ amongst the Ramsons. 😁
So pretty!
Lovely Shazza & although we don’t seem to have carpets of wild garlic in woodland, we do have “onion weed”, which when slashed on the roadside verges has a very pungent smell. Lovely to see Hugo enjoying himself too. Take care.
Is that edible? X
Beautiful flowers I have never seen them before.
There will be lots near you in the Lakes
. It smells like actual Garlic.x
We’re lucky enough to have a mass of garlic right outside our gate 🙂
It was also out in part of the woods a few weeks ago when we visited the in laws.Harry got so excited when we got to it,we guessed it was the smell – although it wasn’t a smell that seemed to impact on Hicks when we had him. Does the smell affect Hugo at all?
Hi no I don’t think so. Maybe he could smell some scent hidden in it. 🦊 Fox! X
🙂
Hugo looks so lovely in the middle there. Doesn’t the fresh scent at this time of year in the woodland areas, smell so good. x
It does. I also found some fresh water mint by the brook recently and that smells lovely. X