Now roadsides and fields are flecked with yellow. The big greenish yellow spots are often made by Spurges. They are easily recognized by their colour, white milk and the form of their inflorescences. Here are three of the about twenty-five species that grow in Périgord. Their flowers are special. They grow in umbels andd consist of a female capsule and a number of male stamen on a stem, accompanied by several round or cornered glands, and this surrounded by two big coloured bracts. And from this contraption sometimes emerges another 'flower' of the same construction.
Several weeks ago the Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) started flowering. It likes to grow under deciduous trees. In the picture above you can see the red capsules already beginning to ripen.
The Cypress Spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias) above grows where it is dry and stony, and also elsewhere.
And this is the Yellow-headed Spurge (Euphorbia flavicoma) who has of course yellow flower-heads. Like most other spurges.