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This old gravestone is covered in moss.

Moss is a small green plant, rarely more than a few inches high, which grows anywhere not overshadowed by taller vegetation or perpetually dry. There are more than 600 species in the British Isles, growing on rocks and walls, in woodlands and on tree trunks and branches. They are important pioneers of rock surfaces, holding moisture in their leaves and building up humus in which the seeds of flowering plants can germinate.

There are two alternating generations in the life cycle of moss. The plant itself carries male and female organs. After fertilisation, these produce a capsule. Stalk and capsule together form an asexual, spore-bearing generation. The spores produced are capable of germinating into a new plant. Mosses also reproduce vegetatively, by small pieces breaking off and growing into a new plant.

As they are rootless and tend to get their nutrients from water running over or through them they are nearly always short.

In this part of the churchyard primroses grow in abundance.

The Primrose is an herbaceous perennial plant, low growing, to 10–30 cm tall, with a basal rosette of leaves. The leaves are 5–25 cm long and 2–6 cm broad with an irregularly margin, and a usually short leaf stem. The flowers are 2–4 cm in diameter, borne singly on a slender stem, pale yellow, white, red, or purple. It flowers in early spring, one of the earliest spring flowers in much of Europe. In appropriate conditions, it can cover the ground in open woods and shaded hedgerows.

In more populated areas it has sometimes suffered from over-collection and theft so that few natural displays of Primroses in abundance can now be found. To prevent excessive damage to the species, picking of Primroses or the removal of Primrose plants from the wild is illegal in the UK.