Common name:
Field madder
Family:
Scientific name:
Sherardia arvensis
Main flower color:
Range:
Ireland, Wales, England and southern Scotland
Height:
Up to 10 cm; stems are prostrate
Habitat:
Fields, disturbed ground
Flowers:
Up to 5 mm in diameter; a slender, tubular corolla opening to four white to pale pink lobes, and (usually) six partly fused green sepals, with a whorl of bracts below. Flowers are produced in small clusters (four to eight heads) at the tip of the stem branches
Leaves:
Elliptical, pointed at the tips, up to 20 mm long, hairless, with backwards-pointing marginal bristles. In closely spaced whorls, of four towards the base of the stem, increasing to six at the top. Stems are square in cross-section, and hairy
Season:
May to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
