A tiny green plant whose flower head is a cube of five flowers, four facing outwards and one facing up, like a four-faced clock tower
Moschatel — the town hall clock.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Moschatel
Native · flowers in spring, gone by May or June in the lowlands · shaded woodland, stream banks and hedge banks
Adoxa moschatellina — Adoxaceae
Moschatel, also called town hall clock, is a tiny, pale green woodland plant whose flower head is a cube of five flowers: four facing the compass points and one facing the sky. It appears early in spring, sets seed and vanishes by early summer. It is often listed among the plants of long-established woodland.
How to spot them
- ▸A single, small, pale green flower head about the size of a pea, made of exactly five flowers: four at right angles round the sides and one on top, like a four-faced clock
- ▸Low, soft, hairless plant, about 10–15 cm tall, with delicate, twice-divided, trifoliate leaves like those of a celery or a pale buttercup
- ▸Flowers greenish, without showy petals; a faint musky scent is claimed, though some botanists cannot detect it
- ▸Spreads by slender creeping rhizomes, forming patches in the shade of deciduous woods, hedge banks and stream sides
- ▸Look-alike: none among British plants with a cubic five-flowered head; when not in flower the leaves can be mistaken for wood anemone or a small geranium
How to know it
The genus name means 'without glory', a comment on the pale green, inconspicuous flowers of this woodland plant
Adoxa = without glory, from the Greek doxa; Moschatel.
This family, once containing just this species and two Chinese relatives, now also includes the elders and viburnums
Moschatel — Adoxaceae.
Descended from woody ancestors, this plant reduced its flower cluster from about a hundred flowers to exactly five
Moschatel — the Botanical Society of Scotland's account.
A vernal woodland plant that disappears by May or June in the lowlands and is self-fertile
Moschatel — the BSBI describes it as a vernal species.
Its species name recalls musk, though botanists often report that the plant has no noticeable smell
Moschatel — moschatellina, from a Latin word for musk.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Adoxaceae; formerly the only member alongside two Chinese species, now grouped with Viburnum and Sambucus after DNA studies
- •Adoxa comes from Greek for 'without glory'; moschatellina from the Latin for musk
- •Always exactly five flowers per head: the four side flowers have five petals each, the top flower has four, making 24 petals in all (Botanical Society of Scotland)
- •RHS describes the clusters as forming a tiny cube on stems about 15 cm high in mid to late spring
- •The BSBI says it is native in Britain and Ireland, GB Red List Least Concern, and rare in Ireland
- •Grows on shaded banks of rivers and streams, in deciduous woods and shaded hedge banks, up to 1,065 m at Ben Lawers
- •A vernal species: it disappears by May or June in the lowlands after seed-set
- •Commonly listed among indicators of long-established woodland, though the plant also grows on stream banks and hedge banks
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Sources
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland — Adoxa moschatellina L. (Moschatel)
- Botanical Society of Scotland — Plant of the week – Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina
- Royal Horticultural Society — Adoxa moschatellina | moschatel