Moschatel

Moschatel or Town-hall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina.  High Elms, 20 April 2013.

 I went up to High Elms recently to look at some Green Hellebores.  Near them, in the shade of the trees, were patches of this delicate woodland flower.

It's only a few inches high, and it only appears for a couple of months early in the year.  The name Moschatel comes from a musky scent that it develops in the evenings.

The other name, Town-hall Clock, comes from the flowers.

Moschatel or Town-hall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina.  High Elms, 20 April 2013.

There are always five flowers on the stem.  Four of them, five-petaled, face outwards in the four directions, like clock faces on a tower.  The fifth flower, four-petaled, faces upwards.

It's interesting that several early woodland flowers are green.  This particular patch of woods is full of Green Hellebores, Dog's Mercury and this one.