I went in search of the Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) earlier in the week. A friend mentioned they were in flower on Therfield Heath near Royston. As the common name suggests they are associated with flowering round about Easter.
 Some wildflowers are generalists- for example there's no need to conserve Cow Parsley which grows everywhere. But others are specific to very particular habitats that have been much denuded by modern agriculture. Case in point the Pasqueflower which requires sloping chalk grassland grazed to a short sward. One of its few remaining sites in the wild is at Church Hill on the heath.

 Most of Therfield Heath is a golf course, possibly a good thing. You never hear of a golf course being built on. School playing fields yes and ancient woodlands but golf courses never. The rougher fringes of the greens are plentiful with Cowslips (Primula veris).

 Beyond the links is a small wood of tall mature Beech (Fagus sylvatica) and beyond that Church Hill which has long been noted for its colony of Pasqueflowers. Their survival was probably a fluke, the hill is too steep to be of any use for crops or golf and now is maintained as a nature reserve.
 Here the Pasqueflowers grow in drifts. Beautiful to see but hard to photograph. The sun shone and dimmed constantly as blustery clouds blew overhead. P. vulgaris is diminutive and shook back and forth as the wind raked across the hill though they were quite able to withstand the blasts.
 Appropriately Pulsatilla is a subgenus  of Anemone which are sometimes referred to as 'windflowers' (from the Greek. Anemone: "daughter of the wind").