I’ve raced past the wooded railway bank so many times on the way to the platform and half-wondered what the fist-sized round leaves were which swamp the woodland floor. Today on platform 2, I see a number of drooping pink flower heads among the leaves just over the wall at the perfect height for a photo.

In the dazzling spring sunlight, the warmed flowerlets on top of downy stems smell sweetly and faintly of almonds.

Back home, I discover this is winter heliotrope (Petasites fragrans), an invasive species native to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Heliotrope from the Greek meaning “sun-tracker”.  It’s in the same genus as a native plant butterbur (Petasites hybridus).

I read that it is dioecious, in other words has separate male and female plants and only the male plants were imported to the British Isles.  So while it can’t set seed, this weed still spreads very effectively by its underground stems or rhizomes and is reported to be very hard to get rid of.

While this patch of woodland doesn’t adjoin my local patch, I still have to hope that it doesn’t spread there.  We already have Japanese knotweed and cherry laurel to contend with.