West Highland Flora

Scarlet Pimpernel


Anagallis arvensis

Taxonomic note: am taking this to include the subspecies sometimes separated as A foemina.  The pictures are ssp arvensis, and the local plants are (or were) almost certainly the same.

Anagallis arvensis

Photo © Jackie Miles
NSW South Coast Weeds
Bega Valley, NSW, Australia

Rare weed of cultivated ground, possibly no longer present due to cessation of arable farming.

Flower diameter c 4-10 mm

ID: Not likely to be mistaken for anything else when showing red flowers.  The flowers can also be blue, mauve or pink, but are still very distinctive.  Stems square-sided, leaves shaped like those of Chickweed, opposite, unstalked, 3-veined, with black gland-dots beneath.  Petals, little longer than sepals, fringed with minute gland-hairs.

Other features: Flowers solitary in leaf axils.  Usually annual, can be perennial.

 

Anagallis arvensis

Photo © Jackie Miles
NSW South Coast Weeds
Bega Valley, NSW, Australia

 

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