Three weeks ago, I have mentioned about the first sign of spring - the flowering of Snowdrop and Winter Aconite. When I passed the same place of their flowering two days ago, I noticed they were dying out. However, more exciting spring flowers have come - Daffodil, Crocus and Blackthorn! They are the first flowers to bloom in spring. When I found them, I was crazy about them, not only for their beauty, but also for the liveliness they are bringing to this world. They are pronouncing - spring has come! (All pictures below were taken around my hall residence.)

   

While I was immersed in picking what flowers to shoot and what angles to shoot. I suddenly heard “Hello”. I turned back and found a passer-by standing at the road side. She was smiling, “My friend yesterday passed by here and also loved the flowers. Do you want me to take a picture for you?” Her kind offer came a bit of sudden. Yeah, why not? I thanked her.

    

I continued to shoot the flowers. After some time, I heard someone calling my name. I looked back. Oh, here came a good friend of mine who lived in the same hall residence as me (I knew him because one day I was carrying loads of food returning from the weekly big supermarket shopping, he offered help to me). His was smiling cheerfully. “When I came along, I saw from a distance someone was taking pictures, and I thought it must be you,” he said. “Yeah, you knew me so well. Only me who have so much time to do such meaningless things.” (It was not the first time he found me shooting pictures in the streets like an insane person. Last time of snowfall, while I was taking pictures in a crazy manner, he also bumped into me.)

Daffodil

  

  

  

All daffodils are the common name for Narcissus, which is the genus name. What are shown in the pictures are the single flower, large trumpet yellow ones, which are the most common kind of daffodils in the U.K. (there are smaller headed scented varieties like the kind the Chinese people grow as ornamental flower for the Chinese New Year, and people usually call them narcissi).

   

The genus name “Narcissus”, is considered to be derived, not as is often said, from the name of the classical youth who met with his death through vainly trying to embrace his image reflected in a clear stream, but from the Greek word “narkao” (to be numb), on account of the narcotic properties which the plant possesses.

    

The bulbs of the Daffodil, as well as every other part of the plant are powerfully emetic, and the flowers are considered slightly poisonous, and have been known to have produced dangerous effects upon children who have swallowed portions of them.

    

The Daffodil is very easy to grow and therefore appears everywhere, along the roadside, next to a tree, near your house. Even when other plants are still in their withered state, it has already bloomed. Its sharp yellow color always makes it stand out from the rest.

  

  

  

Crocus

  

    

Crocus is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. The color of their flowers varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant.

  

  

Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis.

  

  

Blackthorn

   

    

The Blackthorn (species name is Prunus spinosa) is a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus (which is a genus of trees and shrubs, including the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds). It is covered in white flowers in early spring, and is often one of the first flowering trees. 

   

   

The Japanese sakura is also under the same genus Prunus. No wonder the blossoms of Blackthorn look so much like sakura.

  

   

Weeping Willow

     

The weeping willow trees do not display beautiful flowers, but they are one of the first deciduous trees (i.e. they lose all of their foliage for part of the year) which will grow new leaves. When looking close to their branch, I found a lot of new buds (see the right most picture below).