Bent Adder's-tongue

The first plant of the diminutive fern Adder's-tongue to show at the nature reserve this spring. It came up alongside a well-trodden path and it looks as though it got trampled at some point - the fertile spike has taken on a rather comic gesture, hardly the feared serpent's tongue that gave it its common name! Many more plants will show in the old grassland nearby over the next week or so.