Rare Arable Weeds

Taking a break from searching for helleborines which has been my focus for the last 3 weeks, on Saturday I joined the Wychwood Flora Group's annual survey for Red Hemp-nettle (Galeopsis angustifolia).  It's rare, described as nationally critically endangered.  There is one consistent location a few miles south of Chipping Norton in the headland of field near Lidstone, which because of the farmer's interest, never gets sprayed.  The vast majority of the Oxfordshire records are from there.

Growing up in the Lake District where farmland is either pasture or was at one time hay meadows, I had never seen arable weeds until I moved south, so they are a bit of a novelty for me.   On Saturday there were probably more plants there than had been seen for a long time - robust, branched, growing up to 30 cm.   Stunning, and not difficult to find.

Red Hemp-nettle

Red Hemp-nettle

Red Hemp-nettle

There were other interesting plants such as  night-flowering catchfly (Silene noctiflora), - scarce in Oxfordshire - and because we started out quite early, the petals were flat and white (arguably a very pale pink), rather than curled over to reveal the creamy underside, causing much confusion, mainly initiated by me because in a field at Coldharbour a couple of weeks ago I saw plants just as they should be so at Lidstone I was rather dogmatic about curled over creamy petals!.   Other nice things included round-leaved fluellen (Kickxia spuria) and dwarf spurge (Euphorbia exigua).

Night-flowering catchfly

Night-flowering catchfly

Night-flowering catchfly, Coldharbour Farm in the afternoon

Round-leaved Fluellen, Coldharbour Farm

My Hill's Herbal, 1812, gives an alternative name for the fluellen as Elatine and notes that the juice is cooling and astringent, though collecting a usable quantity from this little weed would seem to be quite a challenge.