Species of the Month April 2021

Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina

 

A tiny but beautiful plant, Moschatel is blessed with many alternative common names, including Townhall Clock due to the five sided flower head resembling the faces of a clock tower, and Good Friday plant due to its appearance at Easter time. The species is found in shaded woodland locations, where it forms a low growing carpet.

The leaves are rather similar to other woodland species, but the flower is unique and thus the species can be easily identified at the right time of year. The small size and limited flowering period (April/May) of the species means it is easy to overlook and is probably under recorded in south east Wales. You can see further photographs on NatureSpot and learn more on the Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora.

Moschatel is fairly common in Wales, but we only have 659 records in the SEWBReC database (view the Wales wide distribution on Aderyn).

If you spot Moschatel during April (or at any other time of year), please send us the record, ideally via SEWBReCORD or the LERC Wales App. Instructions on how to submit records are available here.