19th April 2025

This lovely specimen of a plant in the churchyard is Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), also known as Jack-by-the-hedge. It prefers shady spots along woodland edges and hedgerow banks and the crushed leaves smell faintly of garlic. It is a biennial, the seeds germinating in summer and the plant overwintering as a rosette of leaves before flowering in the following spring. Crucially, Garlic Mustard is a major food source for the caterpillars of the Orange-tip butterfly, a species that is very much in decline in our area. Encouraging a healthy population of these native plants in the churchyard will hopefully also help a much-loved butterfly.

Garlic Mustard