Yellow Rattle

Seventy years ago the idea of actually buying the seed of yellow rattle would have seemed nonsense. It was common across much of Britain on soils of medium to low fertility but had no obvious use. Now the picture has completely changed and the seed can readily be bought, as can plugs of plants too.

Yellow Rattle is an important component of meadows.

So, what has brought about this great change?  Botanists have known for years that Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, it is a hemi-parasite,  but with its green leaves theoretically enabling it to live a more or independent life. In practice it always seems to be growing in close proximity to a host from which it draws important nutrients. Some books seem to imply that it parasitizes grasses only but that is manifestly not true; we have some plants of yellow rattle in our front garden - where we have no grass whatsoever.

Its main purpose in conservation work is to suppress grasses but it should

not be forgotten that bees enjoy the flowers. Our front garden on Stefen

Hill, Daventry, 15 June, 2020

Its common name refers to the way that the seeds rattle when a dry capsule is shaken. An alternative name of Hay Rattle is a reminder that farmers would often shake the dry heads and, if the seeds rattled, it indicated that the hay crop was ready for harvesting. The leaves are  sharply serrated and may be the feature referred to in the name given to it by Linnaeus - Rhinanthus Crista-Galli. That was the name also used by Druce (Druce, 1930) when he described it as '…too abundant, and widely distributed'.


In following decades the species became rather scarce and, with the current drive to restore old meadows, it is usually included in seed mixes supplied for this purpose. Its inclusion is aimed to suppress the growth of rank grasses, so allowing less robust species to thrive.


Certainly my friend Matt Moser grows it on Foxhill Farm, Badby, and the plants in our front garden probably arrived home with me on my footwear. In our garden it may be tapping into plants of thyme or a campanula.


Reference


Druce, George Claridge 1930  The Flora of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough  Buncle & Co, Arbroath