Boars and blooms

A vast array of woodland wildflowers is one of the iconic views of spring. In mid-May in the Forest of Dean there is a fabulous carpet of bluebells and wild garlic. A few days ago the air was full of the scent of bluebells, but now the wild garlic has come into its own and totally overpowered it. It takes a bluebell about five years to store up enough energy in its bulb to produce a flower spike. Janet Sumner finds a flower with no bulb - it's been dug up and eaten by a wild boar. Wild boar were hunted to extinction centuries ago, but have now been reintroduced.