If you Go Down to the Woods Today 3rd April 2025

A change from birds today as Peter and myself made for one of BBOWTS (Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trusts) gems, a discrete reserve hidden away in a rural part of Oxfordshire and accessed  down a bridleway skirting past a horror of farmland monoculture. Passing through a wooden gate we entered an alternative and from my point of view far more biodiverse and preferable universe of deciduous  broadleaved woodland, flower rich grassland clearings and heathland and how I imagine, possibly fancifully our countryside used to be. 

What in particular were we seeking you may ask although it was pleasurable enough to be able to walk through the reserve in the morning sunshine with everything bursting with renewed life and breaking free from the shackles of winter.

Entirely alone we walked down a track and there, hidden in plain sight was the botanical treasure we sought.

Peter pointed and said

There they are

I looked but failed at first to register anything unusual

Look through and below the branches of that old coppiced hazel he advised

I tried again and there they were,  columns of white, pink tinged, drooping flowers resembling a stack of teeth or vertebrae rising above the bright green blades of bluebell leaves and the withered brown remnants of last year's fallen hazel leaves

Toothwort

This parasitic plant is found most commonly in central England in deciduous woodland where it draws all the nutrients it needs form the roots of a host tree, in this case hazel but can also be alder and occasionally elm, beech or lime.It is a real oddity, here lurking amongst the emerging bluebells and wood anenomes and on discovery the kind of specially rare find that brings both delight and quiet satisfaction in equal measure.

I have never seen the plant or its flowers before but was impressed by both their strangeness and self effacing beauty.For most of the year the plant is hidden below ground until the flower spikes, reaching from 20-30cm in height, emerge in spring.Its Latin name Lathraea reflects its mainly invisible existence, as  it is derived from the Greek word for clandestine or secret.  Tucked away under the ancient hazel whose regular coppicing days are long gone, leaving it a ruin of haphazard branches growimg at all angles from ground level to above the height of a man's head, the flowers can at first glance resemble an exotic orchid.

It is good the Toothwort is so well concealed by the tangle of growth in which it has chosen to grow.I feel it will not be troubled here and can thrive through its benign neglect. Toothwort can remain faithful to the same location for years if left undisturbed and as only a comparative few know of its presence here and all are protective of the plant's weird charm its future looks bright.