Winter Aconite

With spring just around the corner (though it certainly didn't feel like it today in a biting northerly wind), it's that time of the year where I inevitably start to think about taxa other than birds. A plant I've been keen to see for a while is Winter Aconite Eranthis hyemalis but with my recent health issues I haven't been able to summon the energy to go and see it despite occurring only 5 miles or so from home in Preston Park in Brighton. Winter Aconite is actually a native of Southern Europe, from Italy to Bulgaria and Turkey but it has been naturalised in the UK for a long time. The Flora of Sussex describes it is 'scarce' occurring in 'open woodland; churchyards, road verges and other grassland and arising on shaded verges from dumped waste'. It was first recorded in Sussex in 1835 but well-known populations have a habit of suddenly disappearing for no obvious reason.

Rather than drive into Brighton and struggle to find somewhere to park, we caught the train from Southwick to Hove and walked from there to Preston Park. The wildflower books state that Winter Aconite flowers from January to March but as I feared it was largely over with just a handful of plants still in flower beneath the one remaining 'Preston Twin', a magnificent English Elm thought to be around 400 years old. A return visit in 2023 is definitely called for.






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