Annual valerian
Centranthus calcitrapae
Family · Caprifoliaceae · Harmless
The small annual with tiny pale pink flowers growing in wall cracks and shady banks, a cousin of the garden red valerian but on a much smaller scale.
Where it grows
Walls and rocks · Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland · Town and roadside
Also known assmall-flowered valerian
In flower
How to tell it
Lower leaves entire and oval, upper ones deeply cut into segments, giving the plant two different faces. Very small pale pink flowers in loose clusters, each with a short spur behind. A tender hollow stem.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No relevant use. It counts as an exercise: a plant whose lower and upper leaves look like different species teaches you not to identify anything from a single leaf.