Wednesday 3 April 2013

Snakeshead Fritillary

We have fellow blogger and friend Susan to thank for the wonderful afternoon we've just spent in the Veron, the area in a triangle west of Chinon and between the rivers Loire and Vienne.

The reason for our visit??

Within this triangle at this time of year can be seen the most amazing display of Snakeshead Fritillary, ranging in colour from the deepest reds..
to subtle shades of creamy pink,

Each one has the distinctive chequerboard pattern and the most elegant form..

We could have stayed forever...
In a couple of weeks their flowering will be over, but at least we've got a few photos to look back on.

6 comments:

Lady Justine said...

They're so beautiful! I'm very jealous... you must have had a great day!

Lady Justine said...

p.s. Not sure why, but I could only comment with my Google account. Weird.

Tim said...

Now... that's what a field of Frits should look like!!

GaynorB said...

Beautiful. Isn't nature wonderful.

Are you going to use your talents to paint them, Elizabeth?

Aussie in France said...

They are beautiful! I had my first contact with fritillary a couple of days ago. Susan very kindly identified the genus (?) but it was certainly nothing like the Snakeshead.

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Thanks for all your comments. It certainly was the most spectacular sight!

Gaynor, I may well do as you suggest and have a go at painting some today. It's too cold for anything else really, isn't it?

Lady Justine - we changed the way people can leave comments because we were getting so many spam ones and most of them were linked to advertising of some sort, which is not what we want on the blog.