Odontites vernus (Bellardi) Dumort.
Red Bartsia
Red bartsia is a native annual that is partly parasitic, attaching its roots to those of grasses to draw off some of their resources while keeping its own green, photosynthesising leaves. Wiry and freely branched, it grows to around 30-50cm with four-angled stems and narrow, opposite, slightly toothed leaves, the whole plant often flushed with a dull reddish or bronzed tone.
About
Red bartsia is a native annual that is partly parasitic, attaching its roots to those of grasses to draw off some of their resources while keeping its own green, photosynthesising leaves. Wiry and freely branched, it grows to around 30-50cm with four-angled stems and narrow, opposite, slightly toothed leaves, the whole plant often flushed with a dull reddish or bronzed tone. From summer into early autumn it carries one-sided spikes of small, dusky pinkish-purple, two-lipped flowers.
It favours short, open, low-fertility grassland and bare or compacted ground, doing well on track edges, field margins, verges and disturbed places across much of Britain. The flowers are a useful late-season nectar source, particularly for bees, including some specialist solitary bees. As a grass-weakening hemiparasite it can help create gaps for other wildflowers, so it has a place in meadow creation and conservation grassland on poor soils, though as an annual it relies on some open ground to regenerate from seed.
Synonyms
Odontites jaubertianus roseiflorus · Odontites ruber vernus · Odontites rubra verna · Odontites verna verna
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