More Green Flowers

Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

Following my post on the Moschatel the other day, it struck me how much of the woodland floor is covered with green-flowered plants at this time.

The Green Hellebore is a good example.  It's not exactly common, but there is a nice patch of it right next to those Moschatels.  As you can see, it's right next to the road.

Green Hellebore, Helleborus viridis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

 The flowers droop, but if you turn them up, this is what they are like.  The green spreading parts are sepals, not petals.

I posted a related plant recently - a Corsican Hellebore.

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

This one, on the other hand, is really common.  The woods and hedgerows are full of it. 

Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

It's related to the Euphorbias you often see as garden plants, which have clusters of yellow-green flowers. 

As a contrast, here's one with no green at all:

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

This plant is a parasite on tree roots, usually Hazel,  and has no chlorophyll of its own. 

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria.  Cuckoo Wood, High Elms, 21 April 2013.

 You can find this next to paths and roads too. You have to watch out for it.  I missed it at least twice, but once I had my eye in I saw it next to a path I had walked down earlier the same day.  If you know what you're looking for, you have a better chance of seeing it.