Seasonal Wild Flowers

Forsythia

Forsythia suspensa x F. viridissima (F. x intermedia)

Oleaceae

Golden ball, Golden bells

February to April

The naturalised escape is thinly scattered throughout the country.

For a map see the National Biodiversity Network Gateway

Forsythia is found in gardens everywhere.

Forsythia is widely planted as an early-flowering, ornamental shrub

and hedging plant in gardens, parks and public amenity areas.

Naturalised plants in the wild are derived from rooting fragments,

as the seeds are not viable in England.

It is considered a relic of previous cultivation and is found on

brownfield sites, waste ground and rubbish tips, in hedgerows

and by roads, footpaths and water.

It is a neophyte with naturalised escapes are known only since

the 1970s, but they appear to be increasing due to the increased

amount of garden rubbish discarded in the countryside.

It is a deciduous shrub with hanging, bell-shaped, lemon-yellow

flowers, which appear before the leaves.

Forsythia bush by the Lancaster canal

Flowers en masse

Individual flower