Every spring for perhaos 1,000 years, a number of ancient woodlands in eastern England have been graced by the spectacular massed flowering of the Oxlip Primula elatior. The phrase 'locally abundant and dominant' somehow fails to convey a scene that has excited so many people. Miller Christy, in 1884, estimated that eight acres (3.2ha) of coppice in Peverill's Wood, Essex, contianed 558,730 plants and 1,478,824 inflorescences.