Location: The Gravel Embankment, Manfield Scar, River Tees, County Durham. 15 Feb 2012

Canon 550D EF-S 55-250 lens.

Tussilago is a perennial herb with a creeping rhizome and long runners. Both the flower and the leaf buds grow on the rhizome. In early spring, erect, unbranched woolly stems, covered with reddish-brown scales, grow from the flower buds, terminating in a pale yellow flower head, up to 35mm in diameter, with a single-rowed involucre composed of up to 300 strap-shaped ray florets and up to 40 tubular disc florets. This becomes a white downy sphere when the long-stalked basal leaves begin to sprout. These are round, heart-shaped, shallowly toothed at the edges, and divided into five to twelve lobes. They are glossy and dark green above and greyish below due to the felt-like hairs covering the underside; the young leaves are densely felted on both sides