Yellow-rattle

I spent much of the day at Wicken Fen NNR and struggled to find any photographic fodder. The weather was hot and sultry, swinging between blinding sun and grey flatness. The heat meant that insects (particularly dragonflies) were whizzing around at top speed. Bees and butterflies occasionally stopped on a flower, but then the breeze, which did little to make it feel cooler, blew them around.

I didn't take that many photographs, and when I got home I deleted most of them - and wasn't really that pleased with those I retained. In the end I decided on this yellow-rattle Rhinanthus minor, as I liked the contrast between the yellow flowers, purplish bracts and small bluish areas on the tip of the flower's lip.

Yellow-rattle's a hemi-parasitic annual plant, closely related to eyebright, which gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring grasses. The fruit's a dry capsule, which contain loose, rattling seeds when ripe; the plant's name refers to these.

Research at the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has shown that encouraging yellow-rattle to grow in hay meadows greatly increases biodiversity by restricting grass growth and thereby allowing other species to thrive. The seeds are spread very effectively by traditional hay-making practices.