Flowers of the Elan Meadows

Fiona Gomersall
Yellow-rattle
Rhinanthus minor
Yellow-rattle is a hemi-parasitic annual in the
Broomrape family, the Orobanchaceae. The coarselytoothed
leaves are neatly arranged in opposite pairs
on black-spotted stems. The flowers are yellow and
the ‘calyx’ inflated and bladder-like, ‘rattling’ when
dry, an indication that the meadow is ready for
mowing.
Common in good meadows and known as the
‘meadow-maker’, this species supresses the growth
of grasses, thereby ‘opening-up’ the grass sward.