This March, April and May Norfolk Wildlife Trust is asking people to look out for three species linked to spring. If you spot an orange-tip butterfly, a hawthorn or horse chestnut in flower in Norfolk please share your sighting with us.
How to spot an orange-tip butterfly
These pretty little butterflies are easy to spot as the males’ wings have bright orange tips – giving them their name! They are a common sight during spring and can be found in lots of places including meadows, woodland and hedges. The adults lay their eggs on special plants to ensure that their caterpillars have the right food to eat. Orange-tip caterpillars love garlic mustard, cuckooflower and hedge mustard plants.
The male orange-tip is unmistakable: a white butterfly, half of its forewing is a bold orange, and it has light grey wingtips. The female is also white, but has grey-black wingtips, similar to the white butterflies. Both sexes show a mottled, 'mossy grey' pattern on the underside of their hindwings when at rest.
How to spot a hawthorn in flower
In spring our hedgerows burst into life as common hawthorn erupts with creamy-white blossom, colouring the landscape and giving this thorn shrub its other name of ‘May-tree’.
Common hawthorn has shiny leaves, divided into three to seven pairs of lobes, and five-petalled, sweet-smelling flowers. It can be distinguished from the similar Midland hawthorn by its more deeply lobed leaves and the fact that it only has a single seed in each fruit.
Hawthorn shrubs will produce leaves first and then flower, unlike the blackthorn that flowers first and then produces leaves.
How to spot a flowering chestnut
The horse chestnut is a tall, broad tree that has been widely planted in parks and gardens. Originally native to the mountains of northern Greece and Albania, it was introduced into the UK in 1616 and has since become naturalised. In April and May,
rows of horse chestnuts lining roads and in woodlands provide a spectacular display of 'candles' - large, upright flower spikes ranging in colour from white to deep pink.
The horse chestnut has hand-shaped, palmate leaves with five to seven toothed leaflets. It displays large, pinky-white flower spikes.