An early spring flower of the bogs, springs and wet areas, this plant is equally happy in the lowlands or in the hills. In my early days botanising I was told about an exotic Golden Saxifrage to be found in some woods thirty miles away. I got detailed directions, travelled there by car, searched the woods and eventually found the plants in good numbers for the very first time.  A few years later, exploring a small coppice only about a quarter of a mile from home, I found a splendid clump of Chrysosplenium oppositifolium which had obviously been living there for years. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Apart from one or two areas like the east midlands of England and a small part of western Ireland this plant is found all over the British Isles.

Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia, 9th May 2001

Added on January 22nd 2005, updated 1st December 2008, updated 14th March 2010