Yellow Rattle

We’re making the most of Bodnant’s late night opening. I love the chance to wander round the gardens in the early evening light, and as this opportunity will end on Sunday, return visits are irresistible.  

Today, I must admit I’m tired, so while G walks a circuit of the extensive gardens, I stay closer to the house. There’s much to be said about taking a section of the gardens and just wandering slowly, observing the beauty of small things. 

Despite the glorious well-groomed borders and the terraces, much of the gardens are laid out as a woodland wilderness of dells and groves and forests, and in recent years, Bodnant has added wildflower meadows to its attractions. It’s the first time I’ve noticed orchids blooming by the side of grassy pathways, but it’s not these that make my main today. Instead, it’s Yellow Rattle, a common wildflower I’ve never really noticed previously - probably allowing it to merge with the array of other yellow wildflowers in the hedgerows. 

I love its messy intricacy, but wonder about its unfamiliar name - apparently named due to the distinctive rattle from its tiny seeds contained within the the brown calyxes left when the flowers fade. Further research tells me it lives ‘a semi-parasitic life by feeding off the nutrients in the roots of nearby grasses’ and is now used  to turn improved grassland back to meadow  ‘by feeding off the vigorous grasses, it eventually allows more delicate, traditional species to push their way through’.  Who knew? 

Perhaps it’s rather humble for a celebratory Tiny Tuesday image, but it seems it’s a tiny little hero nonetheless, and it would be rude not to tag it for Miranda’s Wildflower Week as well! 

There’s an extra collage of some of some other less-wild Bodnant beauties.