Scurvy grass
(Cochlearia officinalis)
(Cochlearia danica)
(Cochlearia anglica)
Several similar Scurvy-grass species occur in Britain, but the three most common species in this area are Cochlearia officinalis, Cochlearia danica and Cochlearia anglica. Heavily salted main roads inland sometimes have central reservations and verges lined with Common Scurvy-grass Cochlearia officinalis, but more often the species seen there is the much smaller Danish Scurvy-grass Cochlearia danica.
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​These are native plants belonging to the cabbage family (Brassicaceae). The plant acquired its common name from the observation that it cured scurvy, and it was taken on board ships in dried bundles or distilled extracts. Sailors ate scurvy-grass when at sea to ward off the debilitating disease of scurvy, which is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C.
They have simple leaves usually hairless and somewhat fleshy. They tend to be coastal species. The shaded hedgerows and ditches of many
coastal parts of Britain are lit up in springtime by the brilliant white but short-lived flower-masses of Common Scurvy grass. Cochlearia officinalis can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil. The plants are halophytes (salt tolerant) and can tolerate maritime exposure. Throughout Europe C. danica is one of several coastal species found on inland road verges, owing to the practice of road-salting in winter (Fekete et al. 2018). In April/May the central reservations of many British motorways become lilac-coloured with its flowers. In some cases, these plants colonise urban roadsides. Only a tiny fraction of the European flora can tolerate sodium chloride (the ‘halophytes’) and for most species it is quite toxic.
Danish Scurvy Grass (Cocclearia danica) is a small annual plant (up to 20 cm but often just a few cm) whereas Common Scurvy Grass (C. officinalis), up to 50 cm, and English or Long Leaved Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia anglica), up to 30cm, are biennial or perennial, with strong tap roots.
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However, they can be hard to tell apart, and they hybridise where they occur together (Fearn 1977). Both C. danica and C. officinalis have glossy, rather succulent, usually kidney-shaped leaves. Some of C.danica’s resemble tiny ivy leaves, and its stem-leaves are mostly stalked, not clasping the stem at their base. In C. officinalis the stem leaves usually clasp the stem. Its succulent lower leaves, varying from dark green to red and even deep purple, are held close to the ground.
The fragrant, four-petalled flowers, from May to August, are rather variable: C. .danica is often pale-lilac and C. officinalis is usually white but sometimes tinged with mauve or purple. C. danica has smaller flowers (3-5 mm) whereas C. officinalis has flowers exceeding 5 mm. Most importantly, C. danica has 2n = 42 chromosomes whilst C. officinalis varies (2n = 12, 24, or 26). Long Leaved Scurvy Grass C. anglica is in flower from April to July, and the seeds ripen from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite and are pollinated by bees, flies, and beetles. All three plants are self-fertile. Once the short-lived petals have fallen from the flowers, roundish seed pods swell and ripen. The seeds ripen from July to September, they are globe shaped and are reddish brown.
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English or Long Leaved Scurvy Grass Cochlearia anglica favoured environment is muddy shores and estuaries. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist or wet sandy or gritty well-drained soil. Hybridizes with Common Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia officinalis) to become Cochlearia × hollandica.
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Danish Scurvy Grass Cochlearia danica prefering well-drained sandy and rocky shores, walls and banks by the sea avoiding acid soils.
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Pineapple Weed
(Matricaria discoidea)
Pineapple Weed, native to north-east Asia and thought to have spread to the UK via North America, is an introduced, during the late 19th century, annual species that has become naturalised and is widespread all over Britain. A close relative to Chamomile, sometimes known as Wild Chamomile, Pineapple Weed is an aromatic herb of disturbed ground, that commonly grows up to 12cm, usually in poor, compacted soil, of bare field entrances, alongside pathways and tracks, pavements and roadsides and in gardens. Despite its abundance, Pineapple Weed is often overlooked. Nobody would expect to find such a delicate aromatic plant around pathways, yet Pineapple weed lives up to its name - its crushed leaves have a distinctive pineapple smell. The
plant offers multiple medicinal benefits and a unique taste that makes it attractive to the forager. There is some circumstantial evidence that some people may display allergies to this plant, so only a small amount is advised first.
The yellow, conical dome shaped flower heads appear from May to November. Like the other members of the Asteraceae (daisy) family, it is a composite flower, so has a flower head composed of densely packed individual yellowish-green corollas, but it has no 'ray florets', so appears to have no 'petals'. There are very small stunted petals but they don’t last very long.
The leaves are pinnately dissected (finely divided) and have a feathery, chamomile like appearance and sweet-scented when crushed.
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Scentless Mayweed
(Tripleurospermum inodorum)
This plant, a member of the daisy family Asteraceae, is common and widespread throughout the Britain and its range extends through most of mainland Europe and into Asia as well as parts of northern Africa. A native annual or biennial weed of cultivated arable land, waste ground and road verges, often forming dense masses of flowers from May through to November. It prefers warm, fertile and heavy soils with pH >4.5 and preferably >5.5, although is
common on all lowland soils except chalk. Scentless mayweed distribution is determined by the location of cultivated land. It is recorded up to 1,750 ft. It is moderately resistant to trampling and compaction but it does not thrive in high summer temperatures or drought. It is intolerant of dense shade and waterlogging. It responds to increased levels of soil fertility, particularly to applications of manure.
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One of many 'daisy-like' wildflowers, Scentless mayweed is very variable in size and habit. Scentless Mayweed is an erect, multi-branched, 10–80 cm tall, low to medium plant, perhaps best distinguished by its green feathery, very finely divided pinnate leaves. Scentless mayweed often sprawls along the ground but may be more upright when supported by a crop.
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The yellow-centred flowers are flat or convex, compound and have white outer rays on the florets around the perimeter of the central disc, the white rays not reflexing fully after opening, and the disc cone not hollow. Flower heads are usually 3 to 5cm across. Despite its common name, this flower does have a slight scent and it is rather unpleasant, which helps distinguish it from other similar 'daisies' such as Chamomile which has a pleasant (and much stronger) odour.
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It is self-incompatable in Britain and isolated plants may not set seed. The flowers are insect pollinated. Seeds start to become viable 12 days after flowering and are fully ripe 4 weeks after the outer florets open. Seed is set from August to October. Each flower head can contain 345 to 533 seeds. A plant may produce 10,000 to 200,000 seeds but figures of over a million have been
quoted. There is a good correlation between seed number and plant dry weight. Seed longevity is greater than 5 years. In the field, scentless mayweed germinates through most of the year with peaks of seedling emergence in spring and autumn. The main flush is from February to May with a smaller one in October. In a sandy loam soil, field seedlings emerged from the top 30 mm of soil with over 80% coming from the surface 0 to 5 mm layer. Plants of scentless mayweed can overwinter from later germination. Newly emerged plants are fairly slow-growing. It reproduces from seed moved by humans, birds or stock.
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Some populations have developed resistance to certain hormone herbicides. A diploid form predominates in Britain and Northern Europe. In continental Europe, a tetraploid form is predominant that may exhibit perennial growth. There is some evidence that winter and summer annual forms occur. Hybrids have been reported with other mayweed species but these were sterile.
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There is a very common and similar white daisy of waste ground and arable margins. ​Scentless mayweed may be confused with scented mayweed. The mayweeds are difficult to distinguish in their non-flowering stages. Scented Mayweed (Matricaria recutita (synonym = M. chamomilla). Both species can be aromatic. The best way to tell is to slice through the boss of yellow florets (the receptacle, the end of the stem to which the petals attach) in the centre of the flower with your thumbnail; Scented Mayweed has a definitely hollow receptacle and Scentless Mayweed has a more or less solid receptacle.
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​​A close relative is the Pineapple Mayweed, an interesting flower of well-trodden land; it has finely divided leaves very similar to those of the Scentless Mayweed. It is quite easy to distinguish between the species once the flowers are out: Scentless Mayweed has white outer-ray 'petals' while the flowers of Pineapple Mayweed have no white petals at all.
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Scentless mayweed (Tripleurospermum inodorum) is the most widespread of the mayweeds found on arable land. It can be a problem in both winter- and spring-sown crops. It is competitive in wheat and oilseed rape and the seeds can clog sieves and contaminate grain samples. It is particularly competitive in winter wheat, winter oilseed rape and spring crops
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​Scentless mayweed is not palatable to livestock and is avoided by hens. It has value to biodiversity as it is a host of several insect pests but is also a source of nectar and pollen for beneficial insects. The sap contains an anti-viral agent that inhibits the growth of polio and herpes viruses.
Creeping Cinquefoil
(Potentilla reptens)
Creeping cinquefoil is a herbaceous perennial native to mainland Europe, Asia and northern Africa, except for the far north of Scotland, Creeping Cinquefoil is fairly common and widespread throughout Britain and Ireland. ​Found naturally in hedgerows and hedgebanks, sand dunes, grassland and grassy places and rough ground, cliff tops, on urban wasteland, beside car parks and roadside laybys, and on upland hill slopes where the grass is short and the soil free draining.
Low, creeping, invasive perennial with long, limp trailing stems reaching a height of just 10 to 15cm. Plants grow from a main taproot, 30cm long and are blackish in colour. Up to 15 radiating runners are produced per plant throughout the growing season and Creeping Cinquefoil spreads mainly by means of these runners that are up to 1m long, each having up to 20 rooting nodes capable of quickly growing a deep taproot, rooting at the leaf nodes that
root readily on disturbed ground. In this way the weed can potentially colonise 10 sq m in a single season.
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​Strawberry-like green leaves spaced alternately along the stems and varying from long-stalked to almost stalkless, the ​toothed, hairless and rounded oblong, palmate leaves are held in groups of five to seven toothed leaflets.
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In Britain Creeping Cinquefoil blooms from June through to September. Stalked yellow flowers, like flat buttercups, are borne solitarily in the leaf axils, 12 to 25 mm across, solitary with five yellow notched petals surrounding 20 stamens and numerous pistils. The petals are backed by a much smaller five-lobed calyx.
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Although its flowers close on dull days and at night, they are visited by bees and flies when open and a welcome source of pollen to many insects. The grizzled skipper butterfly favours the plant.
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Creeping Cinquefoil is one of several similar wildflower species found in Britain. Tormentil, often found on cliff tops as well as in hedgerows, is very similar but has 4 petals rather than 5. While the 5 petalled flowers of Silverweed might possibly cause confusion with Creeping Cinquefoil. Silverweed is easily distinguished by its leaves, which have many more pairs of leaflets and are silvery, at least on the underside and often on top as well.
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Tormentil
(Potentilla erecta)
Tormentil is found wild throughout Europe, Scandinavia and West Asia. Tormentil is a common, low-growing and creeping perennial almost ubiquitous in the British Isles, recorded in almost all 10 km squares except close to the Wash, throughout most of the British Isles, its numbers remain stable, other than in South-east England where a decline has taken place.
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​Tormentil does not thrive in strongly alkaline areas such as chalk downland but is found in both dry and wet habitats but it is most common in areas of acidic or at least neutral soil, and can be an indicator of acid soil, and it is a frequent find in most upland areas of Britain and Ireland growing on acid grassland, heathland and moorland, as well as bogs, but can also be found on roadside verges and hedge banks, pastures and beside streams on the western side of Britain and even in some lowland meadows, but avoiding chalk.
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Potentilla erecta is a downy, creeping, low-growing, patch-forming plant with slender, procumbent to arcuately upright stalks, growing 10–30 cms tall and with non-rooting runners.
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This plant flowers from May to October and provides nectar for solitary bees and butterflies.
It bears small, bright yellow, buttercup-like flowers, but with only four petals (buttercups have five), unlike most other members of the botanical family Rosaceae, which have five. There is one 7–15mm wide flower, growing at the tip of a long stalk. There are almost always four notched petals, each between 3 and 6 mm long. The petals are somewhat longer than the sepals and there are 20–25 stamens.
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The leaves on the flowering stalks are deeply cut, shiny green and mostly made up of three narrow lobes, toothed upwards towards the tip, and silvery undersides, and are unstalked or with short petioles whereas the rosette basal leaves have a long petiole, and are usually withered by flowering time.. The glossy leaves are alternate, ternate, consisting of three obovate leaflets with serrated margins. The paired stipules at the base of the leaf-stalk are leaflike and palmately lobed.
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There are 2–8 dry, inedible fruits.
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Creeping Cinquefoil Potentilla reptans is similar but its flowers have five petals.
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Silverweed Potentilla anserina has larger yellow flowers with five petals; its leaves are not palmate.
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Potentilla anglica and the hybrids Potentilla x mixta and Potentilla x italica also have 4-petalled flowers
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Silverweed
(Potentilla anserina)
(Argentina anserina)
Silverweed is a perennial flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. Native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere and very common throughout the UK and Ireland. The plant was originally placed in the genus Potentilla, but was reclassified into the genus Argentina by research conducted in the 1990's. This reclassification remains controversial and is not accepted by some authorities. Like the Dandelion, it is a species aggregate which has frequently been divided into multiple species.
This plant can grow to about 30cm in height, although it is best recognized more as a runner with creeping red stolons that can be up to 80 cm long that have the ability to root at the nodes. It is a trailing plant that can be found often on river banks and in rough grassland and meadows, roadside verges, sand dunes and waste ground. Although silverweed can grow in arid, grassy areas, it is also found by wet sandy shores and depending on location, this plant has also been found in ditches and damp places such as the margins of ponds, as well as in moist calcareous soils. Frequently forms large patches over trampled or damp disturbed ground.
The leaves are what give rise to this plant’s name, as its name suggests, the compound leaves of this wildflower have a distinctive silver-green sheen on the topside and silver below, and are coated with silvery grey fine hairs particularly on the underside. This makes silverweed unique and easy to find amongst the grasses. The leaves are 10–20 cm long, evenly pinnate and have up to twenty saw-toothed leaflets, arranged in pairs, 2–5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad with 6 - 14 teeth per side. Each leaf is borne on a channeled petiole up to 5cm in length with a long sheathing base.
Silverweed flowers from May to September. When in bloom, it produces dainty, yellow, saucer-shaped flowers with five petals among the creeping mats of its silvery, downy leaves which remain all year-round. The flowers are produced singly on 5–15 cm long leafless stems, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter with five (rarely up to seven) yellow petals. Silverweed flowers are insect pollinated as well as self-pollinated as they are hermaphrodite, and its flowers provide a nectar source for bees, especially the Honeybee.
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The fruit is a cluster of dry achenes, which root in late summer and autumn.
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It could be confused with other related plants Potentilla sp. such as Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans).
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Wild Strawberry
(Fragaria vesca)
Fragaria vesca, commonly called the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the rose family that grows fairly frequently throughout Britain and naturally throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, and that produces edible fruits. Not actually the ancestor of commercial strawberries, the Wild strawberry does have an excellent flavour.
Once widespread, wild strawberries are categorised as near threatened in England due to the steep and dramatic decline of wildflower meadows. 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s
due to changes in countryside management such as increased fertiliser use, earlier hay harvest and removal of grazers.
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Typical habitat is in dry, stony, lime-rich soils and even on rocks in full sun but​ usually in partial shade. on the grasslands and grassy banks of limestone and chalk downlands, open mixed woodland and forest edges or hedgerows in upland areas at an altitude of 2400–2850 m, scrubland, stone and gravel-laid paths and roads, and railway cuttings. Often plants can be found where they do not get sufficient light to form fruit. In the southern part of its range, it can grow only in shady areas; further north it tolerates more sun. It is tolerant of a variety of moisture levels (except very wet or dry conditions) and can survive mild fires and/or establish itself after fires.
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The wild strawberry is a low to short herb with long and spreading, above-ground, rooting runners. It spreads quickly and low to the ground. The glossy, light-green leaves are trifoliate (composed of three simple leaflets) with toothed margins and hairy undersides.
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Its five to eleven, 12 to 18mm, white flowers appear from April to July and have five rounded white petals that are widely spaced with leaf bracts visible between the petals, and a golden centre. They are borne on a green to red, soft hairy 3–15 cm stalk that usually lifts them above the leaves.
The small' distinctive, red, fleshy part of the strawberry plant, with deflexed sepals, that is generally known as the ‘fruit’ is actually receptacle tissue, and the pips or ‘seeds’ embedded on the outside of this tissue are the true fruits.
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​The plant spreads primarily by means of runners (stolons), but the seeds are also found in soil seed banks and seem to germinate when the soil is disturbed (away from existing populations of F. vesca) and establish new populations.
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Its fruit are eaten by a variety of mammals and birds that also help to distribute the seeds in their droppings, but also slugs, mice and insects that rely on meadow plants for survival, including the grizzled skipper butterfly that needs wild strawberries to provide food to its larvae.
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Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis) is very similar in appearance but has grey-green leaves with the terminal tooth shorter than those either side
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Barren Strawberry
(Potentilla sterilis)
Barren Strawberry is a low creeping perennial, fairly common throughout Britain except in northern Scotland, but unlike Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) it does not produce tasty red fruits. Its range covers most parts of mainland Europe and many other regions of the northern hemisphere including much of Asia and North America.
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Barren Strawberry grows in shaded or partially shaded hedgerows, and dry places, old walls and dry grassy banks. This plant also grows in more open habitats in some upland areas.
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A low, hairy plant with long rooting runners. Grey or bluish green leaves with pale edges, trifoliate, with long oval toothed leaflets, grey silky beneath, and are very hairy on the underside, it has leaves very like a strawberry
although they are a duller green and smaller. A distinguishing feature is the terminal tooth, which is shorter than the adjacent teeth either side.
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The Barren Strawberry, Potentilla sterilis, is one of the first flowers of spring and can be in flower as early as late February or March, especially in a mild winter, though in cooler areas it will flower into May. It produces five petalled flowers, white, 10 to 15mm across with widely spaced gaps between the slightly notched petals (a feature that helps separate Barren Strawberry from Wild or Alpine Strawberry), and sharply pointed green sepals extend out to or even slightly beyond the petal tips..
The fruit in both Barren and Wild Strawberries is an achene, a dry fruit which contains the seed. But in the Wild Strawberry the receptacle swells to produce an edible accessory fruit, the strawberry. In Barren Strawberry the receptacle doesn’t swell and we are left with a small, dry and hard fruit.
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As the name suggests the Barren Strawberry doesn’t bear strawberries. It belongs to a different genus of plants (Potentilla) to the true strawberries (Fragaria). However it does look a lot like a strawberry so here are some differences.
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Although the plants are superficially similar, there are a number of differences between Wild and Barren Strawberries.
Wild Strawberry has bright green, shiny leaves and each Wild Strawberry leaflet tapers to a point but those of Barren Strawberry are dull, grey-green with spreading hairs and smaller, with less prominent veins and the terminal tooth on each Barren Strawberry leaflet is shorter than those on either side, giving it a more rounded appearance. This is not the only difference but it is useful when there are no flowers.
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Wild Strawberry flowers later in the year than Barren Strawberry (April to July, rather than February to May). Barren Strawberry has more widely spaced petals than Wild Strawberry and these are notched, and the sharply pointed green sepals extend at least as far as, or further than, the petal tips. Wild Strawberry flowers have a yellow dome in the centre of the flower rather like daisies whereas a Barren Strawberry, doesn’t have the yellow dome centre.
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In grassland, Barren Strawberry becomes much more difficult to find once it has finished flowering, as the grass grows above the plant, making it more or less invisible. By late summer, the plant is but a distant memory, until spring arrives and the flowers open once more.
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Creeping Jenny
(Lysimachia nummularia)
Creeping jenny is a hairless, low-growing, perennial creeper, up to 8cm high, in the primrose family Primulaceae, of wet grasslands, riverbanks, ponds and wet woods. It has cup-like, yellow flowers and is a popular choice for garden ponds. It is native to Europe and common in Wales and Southern England, scattered distribution elsewhere. It aggressively spreads in favourable conditions, such as low wet ground or near ponds. It is moderately difficult to remove by hand pulling. Any tiny piece left behind will regrow. There is a cultivated variety of Creeping Jenny that has escaped from gardens and now appears quite frequently in the countryside, notably near to towns and villages; the cultivar produces many more flowers than the wild plant, and so the more flowers that Creeping Jenny plants have the more likely it is that they are garden escapes rather than truly wild plants.
In the wild Creeping Jenny is found in wet habitats, such as, stream margins, ditches, damp
grassland nearly always away from bright sunlight. It will grow in damp soil or up to six inches of water.
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In Britain and Ireland the first yellow flowers of Creeping Jenny appear in May, and blooming usually continues until mid August.
Creeping jenny has five-petalled, sunshine-yellow, cup-like flowers that are 12 to 18mm, solitary, with wide sepal lobes, the petals dotted with black glands, borne on stalks branching out from the main stem.
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Leaves are bright green, heart-shaped or rounded at apex, with dotted black glands, short stalked, appear in opposite pairs up the length of the stem are the defining characteristics of creeping jenny.
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Like other creepers, this wildflower propagates by seed and spreading rapidly and indefinitely by stem-rooting via runners that root at nodes.
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Creeping Jenny, provides a good habitat for wildlife and has nectar rich flowers which are bee and other pollinator friendly
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Creeping Jenny is a close relative of Yellow Pimpernel, which can be distinguished by its much rounder leaves and more robust flowers. The yellow pimpernel leaves are narrower and the flowers of yellow pimpernel are smaller with much more pointed petals.
The cultivar 'Aurea' (golden creeping Jenny) It is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for groundcover where the range of its growth can be limited. It is also suitable as a bog garden or aquatic marginal plant. It has yellow leaves, and is somewhat less aggressive than the species.
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Yellow Pimpernel
(Lysimachia nemoran)
Lysimachia nemorum, is a native evergreen creeping perennial herbaceous, flowering plant belonging to the family Primulaceae (Primrose), growing up to about 40cm, but 15 to 25cm is more typical. Lysimachia nemorum is native to Britain, where it is fairly common except for in very dry areas, and the east of mainland Europe from the Pyrenees in the south to eastern Norway in the north and in a few isolated spots in the Mediterranean region too.
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Unlike Scarlet Pimpernel, which thrives in full sunshine, Yellow Pimpernel is mainly a plant of shady places, and it does particularly well in damp deciduous woodlands and on the verges of tree-lined country lanes also in old hedges, glades, damp grassland, fens and marshes, and shaded gullies and cliffs in upland areas. Where deciduous woodland has been replaced by conifers, there will be a decline in Yellow Pimpernel, analysis of the database reveals that the widespread decline of L. nemorum in
Southern England has taken place since 1950 and losses have resulted from woodland destruction and replanting with conifers.
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The short stalked, bright, pale green leaves are opposite, oval and pointed, without serrations or hairs, no glands, growing up to 4cm.
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The first flowers of Yellow Pimpernel appear in May, but it is usually late June before this plant is in full bloom. You might still find Yellow Pimpernel in flower as late as the end of August. ​Yellow Pimpernel has bright yellow, saucer shaped, solitary flowers typically 1 to 1.5cm across with sometimes four but most often five pointed petals and five stamens and long pointed slender sepals. The sepals are pale green and shorter than the petals, they are on long stalks in the axil of each leaf. The pointed shape of the petals help us distinguish it from its close relative Lysimachia nummularia, or Creeping Jenny, whose yellow petals are more rounded and closer together. The stamens have yellow filaments and anthers. The ovary is superior, forming a capsule.
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Yellow Pimpernel is often confused with one of its close relatives, Creeping Jenny Lysimachia nummularia, but Yellow Pimpernel has much smaller flowers with pointed rather than rounded petals.
Very similar in form to the familiar wasteland wildflower Scarlet Pimpernel, this yellow-flowered perennial plant is rather less well known.
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Scarlet Pimpernel
(Anagallis arvensis)
A low-growing annual plant with brightly coloured flowers, most often scarlet but also bright blue and sometimes pink. The native range of the species is Europe and Western Asia and North Africa. Scarlet pimpernel is a widely distributed annual or rarely perennial weed that is not recorded above 1,100ft in Britain. This common European plant is generally considered a weed and is an indicator of light soils. It prefers soils in the pH range 5.5 to 8.0 and is said to be an indicator of loam, though it grows opportunistically in clayey soils as well. At early growth stages it grows better in light shade than in dense shade or in full sun.
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​It is sometimes also known ‘Old man’s weathervane’ or ‘Shepherd’s weather-glass’ as the flowers close when atmospheric pressure falls and bad weather approaches.
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Traditionally included in the family Primulaceae, the genus Anagallis was placed in the family
Myrsinaceae until that family in turn was included in Primulaceae in the APG III system. The genus Anagallis is included in Lysimachia by some authors.
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Many people will misidentify this plant as chickweed if the flower is not present. (The taste will definitely tell you it is not chickweed as chickweed is very pleasant tasting.) The leaves are bright green, soft, ovate pointed, sessile (attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle) and grow in opposite pairs along weak sprawling stems which have a square cross-section, growing to about 5–30 centimetres long. The blade is ovate pointed, elliptic, has a hairy underside, is darkly spotted, with whitish, densely-haired, entire margins. Leaves have black dots underneath.
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Scarlet pimpernel has a wide variety of flower colours. The radially symmetric flowers, about 10–15 millimetres in diameter, are produced singly in the leaf axils from June to September. The five petals have edges that are slightly round-toothed or scalloped and have small glandular hairs. The petals of the type arvensis are bright red to faded red; carnea is deep peach, lilacina is lilac; pallida is white; and azurea is blue. Blue-flowered plants (A. arvensis Forma azurea) are common in some areas, such as the Mediterranean region, and should not be confused with the related blue pimpernel, Anagallis foemina. The blue form can be difficult to distinguish from the Blue Pimpernel (A. foemina), but the petal margins are diagnostic: whereas foemina has clearly irregular petal margins with only 5 to 15 glandular hairs, A. arvensis f. azurea has 50 to 70 hairs on only slightly irregular margins.
The stamens have lollipop hairs and therefore attract a variety of pollinators, especially flies, but the flowers are also capable of auto-pollination. Upon the stamens are a number of delicate, violet hairs, which seem to serve as a bait to insects. Flowers are usually in axillary pairs. The plant has a diploid chromosome count of 2n=40.
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The dehiscent (splitting, at maturity, along a built-in line of weakness) capsule fruits ripen from August to October in the northern hemisphere. The weight of the fruiting body bends the stem, and the seeds are transported by the wind or rain. There are 35-40 seeds per seed capsule. The average seed number per plant is 900 but a large plant may yield 12,000 seeds. Seed shedding can result in over 1,000 seeds per m². Four percent of seeds may be viable just 15 days after flowering. The seeds are fully mature after 6-8 weeks. Plants can be found in fruit for 4 months of the year. Seed from different sources may vary in the level of dormancy. Seeds contain a water soluble germination inhibitor. Dormancy is broken by chilling and light is then required for germination. Scarlet pimpernel seeds germinate better at moderately low temperatures. Germination will occur at 2-5°C but the optimum is 7-20°C. Seed is able to remain viable in soil for at least 10 years. Seed recovered from excavations and dated at more than 30 years old is reported to have germinated. Seeds in dry storage remain viable for 8 years.
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Seedlings can emerge throughout the year but emergence is mainly in March-May and August-September. Dry conditions in summer probably limit germination at that time. In a sandy loam soil, seedlings emerged from the top 40 mm of soil with most coming from the upper 25 mm. Plants from seedlings that emerge in the autumn can overwinter and will continue to grow at moderately low temperatures.
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Common Birds-foot-Trifoil
(Lotus corniculatus)
Common bird's-foot-trefoil is a low-growing, perennial member of the pea family, similar in appearance to some clovers. Its deep yellow, tinged with red, flowers appear in small clusters and its leaves have five leaflets and are downy. It tends to grow in patches, typically sprawling at the height of the surrounding grassland, up to 50cm high (Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil is double that at up to 1m). It is often used as forage and is widely used as food for livestock due to its nonbloating properties, and can survive fairly close grazing, trampling, and mowing. The name 'bird's foot' refers to the appearance of the seed pods on their stalk.
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Similar Species Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus) and Narrow-leaved Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus tenuis). It could also be mistaken for Hairy Bird's-foot-Trefoil (Lotus suaveolens), but that is hairier with longer hairs.
Variable but usually 10 to 20 cm in height, rather sprawling with a solid stem woody at base.
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Contrary to its common name, 'Trefoil' the leaves are not actually trefoil but only appear so although they still have two lower pairs (which are more like stipules and either wither or fall off early). The leaves are held in groups of 5 leaflets, but with the central three held conspicuously above the others, with the lower pair below the terminal trio, bent back by the stem so that the leaves appear trefoil, hence the use of the name 'trefoil'. The leaves are greyish green in colour and glabrous to hairy and are oval-ish lanceolate or oblanceolate to suborbicular. Common Bird's-foot trefoil leaflets are mostly less than 3 times as long as wide. In Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil the ratio is greater than 4 times.
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Deep yellow-coloured pea flowers, 10-16mm, emerge in clusters of 2 to 7, from heads of red-tinged buds from May to September. ​Flowers are mostly bright yellow, but take on an orange hue as they age. Some petals tend to have narrow red stripes. The flowers tend to radiate from a central area. Sepal teeth point more or less forwards without diverging significantly (un-like in Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil where the lower three curl backwards, and the upper two are divergent). Although the flowers do have the same 5 petals as normal pea-type flowers, a banner, 2 wings and 2 keels, the view from above gives the impression of only two, the others being hidden, the large banner and a 'paw'. The view from below reveals that the 'paw' is in two halves, and partially hides the inner two keels.
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Easily mistaken for Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus) but that is twice as tall up to 1m, more robust, and has between 5 and 12 flowers atop a flowering stem, so if you find specimens with only two flowers, then it cannot be Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil.
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Once fertilised, the petals turn orange-brown and then fall off, leaving long and slim, curved, cylindrical seed pods emerging from a otherwise gaping and empty sepal tubes. The seed pods are 15-30mm long (the same range of lengths as Greater Bird's-foot-Trefoil) and shiny brown/purple turning to brown. Eventually they twist and open up to release the seeds.
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Common bird's-foot-trefoil provides a good source of nectar for bees and butterflies and is an important foodplant for the caterpillars of the common blue, silver-studded blue and wood white butterflies. The latter two species are both classified as Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework. As well as being the larval food plant for the Green Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper butterflies and a larval food source for some moths.
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Being a member of the Fabaceae family, it is expected that Bird's-foot-Trefoils would harbour toxic Cyanogenic Glycosides, and indeed some specimens do, but others do not. Contrary to expectation and the commonly accepted role of Cyanogenic Glycosides in plants (to curtail the eating habits of insects upon the plant tissue) it was found by researchers that the larvae of the Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) fared better feeding on the leaves and tissues of Bird's-foot-Trefoils that possessed the toxins than those that didn't! They grew fatter and larger! But the adult butterflies had no preference apart from the females which preferred amino-acid rich nectar (whilst the adult males showed indifference to amino-acid content).
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