YELLOW RATTLE

 

Despite all his efforts at sowing yellow rattle seeds in the top meadow at Filnore, wild flower enthusiast Peter Blenkiron only managed to find four plants up there and this is one of them, captured on camera by Alan Watts.  The leaves are strongly serrated in opposite pairs up the black-spotted stem.

It's an annual and the seed soon becomes unviable so should be sown fresh.  Hopefully our pioneer plants will produce loads of seeds and seedlings.

Yellow rattle is semi-parasitic on the roots of grasses and was once regarded as a pest as it reduced the hay crop.  Nowadays it is often sown to reduce the vigour of so-called improved grassland and thus provide a kinder environment for less vigorous wild flowers.

The name comes from the seeds rattling in the seed pods when they are ripe.