Orange tip and Cuckoo flower, watercolour

Orange tip (male above, female below).

I saw my first orange tip butterfly of the year in the garden today, tempted from its chrysalis by the warm April sunshine. These beautiful little butterflies are a colourful sign that spring is truly here, patrolling their territories along ditches and flower borders. Only the males sport the bright orange wingtips that give the species its name. The female is white with black wingtips.

Orange tips tend to use plants from the cabbage family as food, including garlic mustard and cuckoo flower (pictured). The cuckoo flower, or lady's smock, is a perennial plant that is often found near water. The name cuckoo flower derives from the fact the it is often in flower at the same time as the arrival of the first cuckoos in the British Isles. It is the county flower of Cheshire.