The Colt’s Foot is one of my favourite flowers as it’s generally the first wild flower I see each Spring.
The bright yellow, daisy-like composite flower heads (made up of lots of tiny flowers) of the Colt’s Foot (Tussilago farfara) appear as early as February. Generally late February/early March is the time to spot them, although they will continue to flower into April.
You can find Colt’s Foot sprouting up on roadside verges, in hedgerows, and waste land.
Two points of interest about the Colt’s Foot:
- They get their name from their hoof-shaped leaves
- The flowers appear well before the leaves. This has led to one of its old country names: “Son-before-father”.
Posted as my submission to Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge.
Denzil Nature 
Yes, coltsfoot are early here too. But they don’t beat either celandines or kingcups. All very yellow indeed.
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Celandines and kingcups just showing these last few days. I wonder why they are all yellow?
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I was hoping you’d tell me!
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You have inspired me to research this Margaret!
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Ooh, do tell if you find anything. I guess I should try too …
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They somewhat remind me of dandelions.
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A very cheery colour!
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Indeed, something to brighten up the roadsides!
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They do look like dandelions, but it’s too early for much of anything here. But VERY soon we should see at least the violets and dandelions, if not the crocus (which may not have survived the drought last year). I sure hope so. I would like to see some color and yellow is FINE.
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What an interesting blog you run Marilyn! Thanks for commenting here.
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Thank you for coming to look! I know people look, but since they don’t comment, I have NO idea who they are. I’m always grateful for a bit of feedback.
Our crocus are UP! They aren’t IN the garden anymore. They have moved themselves to the ground in front of the garden retaining wall. I have no idea how they got there since they are rhizomes and don’t usually spread via seed, but we have (count’em) 11 dark purple crocuses. They decided to move and they did. But … how?
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I believe you can grow crocuses from seed Marilyn, so I assume that some of your crocuses seeded and spread to another part of your garden, although I wouldn’t like to say for sure.
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Regardless of how they got there, they picked a very attractive location.
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I’ve learned something new as I haven’t heard of “the colt’s foot”. Lovely and bright.
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Thanks Suzanne, I keep forgetting to qualify “Spring” as in the Northern hemisphere, knowing you are about to enter your autumn/fall!
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Lovely sunny flowers! And I love those old country names – I hadn’t heard this one but it fits perfectly 😀
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Yes that was a new one for me. And repeatable: some of those old country names are a wee bit rude!
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🤣🤣
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So pretty. 😊
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