The flowers that bloom on roadside verges

Spiked rampion – as featured in Grimm's fairytale Rapunzel, and now appearing on Britain's roadsides. Photograph: blickwinkel / Alamy/Alamy

Big splashes of colour are carpeting the verges of many country roads. Foaming white sprays of cow parsley seem to be almost everywhere, sometimes towered over by their big cousin, the giant hogweed. The brilliant white ox-eye daisy, red campion, yellow buttercup and blue harebell are just some of the many other flowers now blooming on the verges. These flowers usually pass us by in a blur, but roadside verges are becoming increasingly important refuges for wild plants, especially if left to grow. And as traffic speeds past, it carries the seeds in the slipstream and helps spread the plants far and wide.

In fact, two-thirds of all British wildflower species occur somewhere on roadside verges, including rarities such as the spiked rampion, with its unusual creamy-white spikes. According to the Grimm's fairytale Rapunzel, spiked rampion was the stolen plant in the story, and on the continent it is known as white Rapunzel.

Some roadside plants originally came from the coast, where they feed on salty air and saltwater. But now these salt-tolerant plants can feed on the salt sprayed on roads during winter. One such plant is the wild carrot, originally found on coastal clifftops. And Danish scurvy-grass is also becoming common on busy roads – it is hard to believe that a century ago this plant was only found on coastal salt marshes. The charity Plantlife has launched a Road Verge campaign to preserve verges and highlight their importance for wildflowers.