May | TheHedge.org

Flowers | Birds | The Festival of Bealtaine | Butterflies | Recipes

FLOWERS

The common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) flowers emerge, following on from its leaves. Its leaves are deeply lobed and are longer than than they are broad. The sinuses between the lobes are deep. The flowers have one style and the crimson berry has a single stone.

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is the first of the umbellifers to flower and it attracts many spring insects seeking nectar and pollen such as hoverflies, bees, dung flies and scorpion flies.

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), originally from southern Europe, are flowering now. Once grown as a vegetable because of their distinctive taste, they can be found in monastic gardens as in Corcomroe Abbey in the Burren. In Ireland it was used to make ‘lenten pottage’, a soup of alexanders, watercress and nettles. Its juice smells like myrrh.

Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) is common under shady hedges. It has a strange inflorescence which you see when you peel apart the sheath (spathe) and the base. The spathe opens at midday and gives off a putid scent which attracts small flies. The flies land, and then fall off the slippery stalk and reach the female flowers at the bottom which they pollinate if carrying pollen from another plant. After pollination the male flowers ripen, producing pollen which falls on to the flies. The flowers then wilt, letting the flies escape with the chance to visit another plant. The orange-red berries produced in September are very poisonous.

The Bush Vetch (Vicia sepium) is found in shadier grassy hedges and has pale purple flowers.

Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) was believed to cure a stitch in the side – the stitch caused by elf-shot, shot by the elves who own this plant. This plant loves shade. Its white, star-like flowers are also called Star of Bethlehem. It grows in grassy habitats. Back to top

BIRDS

A Hawthorn hedge support many pairs and different species of birds, as it provides dense cover and comes into leaf earlier than other hedgerow trees. In England, a Hawthorn hedge would have 34 pairs and 19 different species per 1000 metres. The dawn chorus is best during the first half of May.

The various storeys of the hedge harbours different birds:

1st storey – Robins and wrens nest in the hedgebank
2nd storey – In the hedge shrubs you find song-thrushes, bullfinches, greenfinches, gold-finches and long-tailed tits.
3rd storey – Tits love holes so only hedges with mature trees have them.
4th storey – The carrion crow and magpie love the upper branches of mature trees. Blackbirds and chaffinches are equally at home in hedgerow and woodland. Back to top

THE FESTIVAL OF BEALTAINE (‘bright fire’)

On May Day, two great fires would be lit in every district of Ireland, to encourage the sun and new growth. Farmers would drive their weaker cattle between the fires to protect them from disease. Greenery was brought into the house, symbolising prosperity, and other rituals were performed to protect the farmer’s cattle and crops.

The May bush – a hawthorn or whitethorn- was cut and brought home where it was decorated with garlands and eggshells. In Fingal, it was the custom for young girls to make garlands from whitethorn blossom for their hair. In the 18th century young people dressed up in greenery.

The Bealtaine Fire Celebration still takes place on the Hill of Uisneach each year. During COVID, the festival could not take place – however, the keepers of the hill still lit the ceremonial fires as a symbol of hope and healing. Back to top

BUTTERFLIES

The first Peacock butterflies come out of hibernation and flutter between the hedges.

The Orange Tip spends the winter as the pupa and emerges in May, or by the end of April. The eggs are then laid in June on the cuckooflower and hedge garlic. The colour of the caterpillars is similar to the seed-pods of its foodplant.

The Green-Veined White butterfly’s colour helps to camouflage it when at rest under damp hedges or in woodland. It spends the winter as a pupa and emerges in May. It produces two generations each year. The caterpillars of the 1st generation feed in June and July, the adults appear in July and August. These lay eggs and the larvae then feed in late summer and pupates to emerge the next spring.

The Speckled Wood spends the winter as a pup and the butterfly emerges at the end of April. Like the Green-Veined White, it also produces two broods a year. Back to top

Blossom Petal Ice Cream

Ingredients: Petals of crab-apple or cherry, 150 ml or quarter pt. Double cream, 40 g icing sugar, 2tbs orange flower water, 2 stiffly beaten egg whites.

Steep the petals in heated orange flower water for an hour.
Whip the cream with the sifted sugar until thick, then mix in the petals and orange flower water.
Fold in the egg whites and freeze.