Coltsfoot

With most flowers the leaves come first. Coltsfoot is different. The flowers appear well before the leaves which come much later. The leaves can be used in herbal tobacco and to make cough medicines.

The flowers can sometimes show as early as January and push up through stony soil or gravel. Here are some I saw today not yet open:

And here are some more, opening in a less shady spot:

Spring is late  so they are only coming through now up in the hills. Elsewhere, perhaps further south or lower down, they have bloomed earlier. But these are the first that I have seen this year.