Scarlet pimpernel
Lysimachia arvensis
Family · Primulaceae · Irritating
The tiny brick-coloured flower that opens across fields and closes when the weather is about to turn. They called it the poor man's weatherglass, and it really works.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside
Also known aspoor man's weatherglass, red chickweed
How to tell it
Prostrate, with four-angled stems and opposite stalkless leaves. Small brick-red or blue flowers with five petals. They close in high humidity and late in the day.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
None
It contains irritant saponins and has poisoned livestock, despite its harmless look. It is worth having as a weather reading, which is use enough for a walker.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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