AN EXHIBITION of 18 glass panels by artist Ruth Moilliet, who has combined pressed flowers and etched glass to create a beautiful indoor wildflower meadow, has opened at Kirkcaldy Museum.

Ruth’s fascination with the subject began after a visit to the National Wildflower Centre near Liverpool in 2001. She was struck by the numbers of “rare” flowers she saw there, which had been a familiar sight in her childhood, growing in abundance in the garden, hedgerows and fields.

She said, “I would never have imagined that in my lifetime, in fact within 25 years, the Government would be launching subsidised planting schemes to encourage the growth and revival of these very plants and that an exhibition centre would have been opened displaying the flowers and their habitats that I had taken for granted.”

Ruth studied the flowers and seeds of 20 different wildflowers for her project, ranging from cornflowers and cowslips to musk mallow and wild carrot.

She was fascinated not only by the flowers themselves but the folklore attached. Many of the species on show have been claimed as cures for anything from warts to wrinkles. It might well be worth remembering that a few stalks of salad burnet in a glass of wine (preferably claret) is supposed to cheer the heart.

A wander round this beautiful indoor glass meadow, in which the panels are two metres high, is an experience not to be missed, and this is the only Scottish showing of Meadowlands.

Meadowlands is a touring exhibition from Gallery Oldham and supported by the Arts Council England.

The exhibition will be running in Kirkcaldy until June 8.