Cowslip

The humble cowslip was my favourite flower before I came to the Burren, I think mainly because of its rarity on the east coast of Ireland, where I grew up. (Now that I'm surrounded by beautiful wild flowers in great numbers, I'm no longer sure which one is my favourite!). Cowslips are much more common in the Burren, sometimes they occur in very large numbers. They have a short stemmed cousin in the primrose and the two sometimes cross to produce a hybrid called an Oxlip. Whereas primroses are denizens of shady woodland banks, cowslips favour the sun and turn up in the middle of fields. I've also seen them in large numbers along the margins of new roads in Ireland, when (I guess) long dormant seeds are worked to the surface during the construction.

Ralph Doyle