Hopefully someone will know it straight away - I need to see leaves for proper ID, together with growth habit. We have a member called Bertiefox who lives in France, if you have no luck.

It is a Pedicularis sp. (Lousewort). It was fairly low growing and had rather fern like leaves? A pretty plant but is one of those that has to grow symbiotically with others. There are several species and they grow all across the northern hemisphere, including UK.

Thank you Bamboo and Bulbaholic, I have added another couple of images maybe they might help? The leaves around it almost seem those of a cyclamen flat as opposed to fern. I have just found another clump along the lane near me again just above the water level!

The kleaves are those of celandines and don't belong with the flowers. The leaves of the flowers don't seem to be showing yet.
The only concern that I would have with my id is that I do not expect to see these flowers for another month yet. But then, I normally see it in the north of Scotland or in the Alps, not in SW France.

I did wonder about the leaves - there just don't seem to be any! I have another image from my walk yesterday, it's just of the flowers and shows no foilage at all! We are about a month in front here I believe for Spring flowers, the Forsythia is fully out now, the climate in this region (Poitou Charentes) is micro climate (apparently!) but atm is very damp but mid teens during the day but not a lot of sun! But Crocus are out and fruit trees are budding! Would it help to see the other photo do you think?

Hi Pamela,

This is actually Lathraea clandestina - a parasite of the roots of various tree species, and a relative of the Pedicularis species that Bulbaholic suggested. It's often found on riverbanks since it grows in association with Salix & Alnus which are common wetland trees.

It doesn't produce any leaves at all, and indeed has no chlorophyll, since it derives all it's nutrition from the host plant. The species is not native to the UK (although it has been introduced and naturalised here to some extent, there's a nice colony in a garden near us in North Devon for instance) but it is native to France.

Ah, well, there you are, an ID - interesting for me too.

What an unusual plant.

Thank you Ilex :) Yay finally I have found a native plant, my Mum is also trying to cultivate in her "bog garden" so will be interesting to see if that works out!

My next search is for the Poitou Orchidée which I would love to find!

Thank you all :)

The common name is Purple Toothwort! It reminds me of witches!!

Is it the Lathraea that your Mum is trying to grow?

They can be very tricky to propagate....the normal assumption used to be that you should dig up a section of the plant and replant/bury it on top of the roots of your intended host plant, first scraping bare a section of the roots of that host.

The idea was that Lathraea is like a subterranean mistletoe forming an attachment onto large branches.

What seems more likely is that it actually attaches to younger, smaller roots and develops along with the host, both maturing together. The best solution might well be sowing seed directly onto the roots of a young host and letting the Lathraea do it's own thing.

It is a very fascinating and charismatic plant I think! I would love to be able to grow it here...goodness knows we have enough of the host species!!

Thank you for the id Ilex. This is not a plant that I have come across before. Sorry for the red herring Pamela! :-(