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Snowdrops and bluebells

As the year turns, sunshine warms the soil and plants that spent the winter as bulbs below ground, race to make use of the light before the oak trees can regrow their leaves. First to flower are the snowdrops, but as spring proceeds and the sunlight strengthens the bluebells take over. These glorious carpets of uninterrupted blue are a British speciality. Twenty thousand years ago, glaciers advanced over Britain driving many plant species southwards in front of the ice. When at last the ice melted the English channel began to form, preventing many plants from spreading back from Europe into Britain. The bluebell however, was one of the few that made it.

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2 minutes

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