Cuckoo Flower

This is a flower I picked today - growing by the river -  and came home to look up the name.

The erect, hairless herb has divided leaves, the lowest forming a rosette at the base. It is common in damp pastures and by streams throughout the British isles.

The spring blooming of cuckoo flower has let to folklore associations with milkmaids, their smocks and the Virgin Mary; "milkmaid" and "lady's smock" are alternative names. ... In Austria it was thought that anyone who picked the plant would soon be bitten by an adder; and in Germany some people believed that bringing the plant indoors would cause the house to be struck by lightning.

 

 

So I await my fateful punishment because I did both of these today!