Daphnes - A Heady Scent of Spring

The Daphnes are hugely popular as garden ornamentals and this is largely due to the remarkably strong scent of their flowers, which comes right at the time when we all need a break from the weather. We have two native daphnes in the UK - the deciduous Mezereon (Daphne mezereum) and the evergreen Spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola) - and they both flower from February to March. Both these species can be found in East Anglia, but only Spurge-laurel appears to be native here, with Mezereon favouring limestone soils elsewhere in the country.

Now is the time to get out and look for Daphnes, so I have just added them to the Flora of East Anglia website pages!

The native Spurge-laurel has greenish flowers that are tucked in amongst the leathery, evergreen leaves - perhaps to protect them a little from frosts. But their subtle appearance belies their wonderful scent which is always a real treat in the late days of winter or early in spring. I often find these while there is still snow on the ground - although maybe not this year!

Mezereon is perhaps the best known of our daphnes, since it is hugely popular as a garden plant. The intensely purple-pink flowers of Mezereon look stunning when they appear on bare stems, before the leaves open. A good colony of these plants grows on a protected reserve in West Suffolk but was most likely introduced; either planted by a well-meaning person or perhaps bird sown from berries.

Mezereon flowers are followed by a second colourful display, provided by its shiny berries that start off green and turn bright red. These are much favoured by birds and occasional plants that pop up around our region perhaps originate from berries that have passed through an avian gardener!

As we come into the final year of field work for the BSBI's Atlas 2020, I am reminded that there are always surprises to be found out there, as the natural world never stands still. In spring 2017, a group of us in the Norfolk Flora Group working on recording for Atlas 2020, came across a number of plants of Twin-flowered Daphne (Daphne pontica) in woodland to the West of Norwich. How these came to be here, we've no idea, but they were well-established and had clearly been present for some time. It's possible that someone planted them to provide berries for Pheasants, but it seems an unlikely choice of species for that, so perhaps they simply found their way there via the local bird population from a nearby garden. This is a new species for the county list and certainly an unexpected find!