Yellow Rattle

Today's the day …………………….. for a welcome sight

Following on from yesterday's story about the lawn, we were very pleased to see this plant recently in the bit of the garden which is meant to be a wildflower meadow.

It's the wonderful yellow rattle - an annual plant that thrives in grasslands, living a semi-parasitic life by feeding off the nutrients in the roots of nearby grasses.  In so doing, it eventually allows more delicate, traditional species to push their way through - which is just what we want. 

It gets its name from the fact that, when the flowers fade, the brown calyxes in which the tiny seeds ripen, give a distinctive 'rattle' when they shake in the wind ...………………….