1. Many people in East Anglia (where the oxlip is a rare native) believe that the plant began its decline with the extinction of the wild boar. They say that the plant depended upon the droppings of these creatures, and the only reason they survived in the area is because the oxlip woods, largely left to their own devices, still contain the last cases of wild boar dung [Stevenage, Hertfordshire, January 1993].

Image: cultivated, South London Botanical Institute, London Borough of Lambeth; April 2016.