Here's a sight that brightened up a dull day at a bleak spot - a large patch of Lilium pyrenaicum, growing on a road verge near the Derwent reservoir (in the background of the photo) on the Durham-Northumberland border.
According to the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora this handsome lily (which, as the name suggests, is native to the Pyrenees) was introduced into British gardens before 1596 and was first recorded in the wild in 1853. These plants were well away from the nearest gardens and looked like they'd been established for quite a while..... perhaps dumped with garden rubbish or maybe deliberately planted? I've seen this plant growing along the banks of the River Wear near Wolsingham for over 35 years and there are records of it from the Derwentside area in Gordon Graham's Flora and Vegetation of County Durham.
The orange anthers are particularly striking, as are ...
... the reflexed tepals and very pungent smell.
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