The traditional county flower of Essex is the unspectacular Cowslip, known to locals as the paigle or peggle, and to naturalists as Primula veris. Like Essex, it’s simple, and not stunningly attractive.

It is frequently found on open ground including open fields, meadows, and coastal dunes and clifftops.

Its future in the county seems assured, because it is often included in the wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway cuttings and similar civil engineering earthworks.