Winter Heliotrope is a winter flowering plant with heart shaped leaves, that grows on the north side of the Ridgeway in certain places (near the Crossrail hoardings, near the industrial estate, near the recycling centre.

They throw up thick furry stems, with bulbous buds that bloom into tassel-like flowers, white and light pink, with dark pink centres.

They smell strongly of cherry bakewell.

On the Ridgeway, the sweet smell of almond and cherry mixes with other sweet smells from the recycling plant and sewage works.

The Winter Heliotrope was brought to Britain in the 1800s from North Morocco - to bring fragrance to gardens with its strong almond-like scent. It is now mainly found in waste-land, where there has been lots of demolition and construction - and garden earth has been dispersed.

They grow rhizomatically - i.e. not by spreading seed through wind or animal, but by sending out underground rhizomes that link one plant to the next. This means every plant is identical. Only male heliotropes are found in the UK.