Common Broomrape

A routine monitoring visit to an area of rail-side brownfield land yielded lots of interesting plants, including thriving populations of Wall Bedstraw and Common Broomrape, the first delicately lined flowers of Pale Toadflax, some startlingly red-leaved Shining Crane's-bill, a host of happy Bee Orchids and a rather intriguingly marked tiny pansy - growing on a sun-baked bank with many other spring annuals.