Anthriscus sylvestris

This magnificent wild flower needs rehabilitating. It suffers by virtue of its common name so needs a campaign to get it known by a better one - maybe its Latin name. Nothing like a bit of Latin to impress us.

Once you tell people it's called  Cow Parsley it immediately loses any respect. It doesn't deserve to. It's one of the most beautiful and evocative of wild plants a gorgeous evocation of late May with delicate foliage and superb complex blooms. Its habit of decorating path and track borders creates a picture that's the  very essence of spring and just what we dream of when looking forward to that season from the depths of winter.

So let's call it by its Latin name. Anthriscus is just teasingly hard enough to remember to give it some distinction.