Corncockle

A full day out botanising in Lincolnshire with the BSBI Science Officer, who also happens to be an old friend. Apart from falling rather spectacularly into a very large, grass-covered, rabbit-hole, I had a really good time, and enjoyed meeting the family who owned  a small local estate and were keen to know how to improve it for wildlife.

On the way home I stopped off at a couple of locations and was surprised to find a small stand of corncockle by the Grantham Canal, almost certainly  introduced with other wildflower seeds. Corncockle used to be frequent in arable crops, particularly rye on sandy loams, but it declined dramatically thanks to the introduction of more efficient seed-cleaning technology at the end of the 19th century and widespread use of herbicides. It's pretty much extinct as a wild plant, though introductions (usually short-lived) are becoming more frequent.

Last year a plant was found in Sunderland and the Daily Mail ran an article on it  with the usual understated headline 'The flower that can kill: Deadly British plant thought to be extinct is discovered by a lighthouse'. Quite a few British native plants contain nasty toxins - I suppose they'd like all of them to be made extinct too!