In this graveyard there are not only the faded chrysanthemums of last month. Near a tomb slmall yellow flowers are opening themselves to the December sun.
This Hawksbeard has no official English name, so let us call it 'Holy Hawksbeard'(Crepis sancta subsp. nemausensis). It is a little Asteraceae that normally flowers in Mediterranean regions at the end of winter or the beginning of spring. The last years it is seen more and more North of its area, and now it is common in Dordogne. But to see it in flower in December is really exceptional.
It does not grow only in cemeteries, also in vineyards, gardens, and trodden places in towns.
Its little rosettes are visible a long time before the flowers appear. Here they are surrounded by at least eight other plant species; the blue-green rosette is from a Prickly Sow-Thistle (Sonchus asper).
To open up the flowers need sunshine.
To open up the flowers need sunshine.