Field Fleawort

Today’s after work jaunt involved lighthouses, precarious cliff edges, chalk-heath redolent with the scent of Burnet Rose and Wild Thyme, a delicately coloured form of Kidney-vetch and, star of the show, Field Fleawort.


This is a small biennial or short-lived perennial yellow-flowered herb, occurring on shallow and infertile rendzina soils high in calcium carbonate and deficient in nitrate and phosphate. It occurs on very short, species-rich turf on downland, ancient earthworks and tracksides, and favours warm, grazed, south-facing slopes. It has declined significantly, initially as a result of direct habitat destruction, but more recently as a result of undergrazing and is now considered to be Vulnerable in Great Britain.