More vineyard flora

Well, Spring appears to be on its way, so I thought I would share a photo of one the first flowers to appear amongst the vines each year.

These are the flowers of Tussilago farfara or Colt’s Foot. Strangely the flowers appear before the leaves, which themselves don’t emerge until May. Apparently smoking the dried leaves is a folk-remedy for curing coughs (Tussilago is derived from tussis, Latin for ‘cough’). I'm looking forward to next time I have a cough!