Our Natural Heritage: The County Flower of Buckinghamshire
Published
The third and final article about local wildflowers and their historical heritage by Marieke Bosman is about the plant which flowers in late summer/early autumn and can be found only in the Chilterns – the Chiltern Gentian.
The article was written for the Society’s September 2024 Newsletter. Her previous articles about winter and spring flowering local plants were published in January and May this year newsletters.
THE COUNTY FLOWER OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
The time has come for us to cherish our green inheritance David Attenborough
Chiltern Gentian. Photo by Marieke Bosman
The Chilterns are located on a chalk escarpment which was formed between 65 and 95 million years ago from plankton sediment compressed deep down in the oceans that covered our land at the time. Chalk creates a very special habitat which is loved by certain wildflowers. A beautiful example is the local Chiltern Gentian (gentianella germanica) which, in the UK, only grows in the Chilterns and is the County Flower of Buckinghamshire.
The Chiltern Gentian’s purple trumpet-shaped flowers appear in the chalk grassland between mid-August and October. It is very similar to the Autumn Gentian, but is distinguished by its white (rather than pink) hairs at the top of the flower, its narrower leaves and the crinkly pattern in the tubular underside of its flowers.
Sadly you are unlikely to find in it growing in Amersham; however it can be seen in the Prestwood Nature Reserve as well as the BBOWT reserves at Dancersend, Warburg, Homefield Wood and Yoesden, which are a delight to visit at any time of the year.
