A reddish, straggly annual with one-sided spikes of pink-purple hooded flowers, taking some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring grasses
Red bartsia - a hemiparasite.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Red bartsia
Native · annual, flowers June to September · verges, cuttings, damp grassland
Odontites vernus — Orobanchaceae
Red bartsia is a straggly, reddish annual of roadsides and waste ground whose pink-purple flowers are arranged in one-sided spikes. It is a hemiparasite: it makes some of its own food but taps the roots of grasses for water and nutrients. It is a favourite of carder bees, and one rare solitary bee visits nothing else.
How to spot them
- ▸Small pink-purple two-lipped flowers in a one-sided leafy spike
- ▸Opposite, narrow, toothed, unstalked leaves; the stem and leaves often flushed reddish
- ▸Downy, straggly, much-branched plant to about 40 cm
- ▸Grows in grass on low-fertility soils, verges and cuttings
- ▸Look-alikes: marsh lousewort has larger, pinker, hooded flowers and fern-like leaves; other hemiparasites (yellow-rattle, eyebrights) have yellow or white flowers
How to know it
Its English name commemorates Johann Bartsch, a young Prussian botanist and friend of Linnaeus who died in Surinam
Red bartsia - genus Bartsia was named for him.
One rare solitary bee feeds exclusively on it, while carder bees and wasps also visit
Red bartsia - the Wildlife Trusts note a solitary bee that feeds only on it (Melitta tricincta).
Like yellow-rattle and eyebrights, it is a partial parasite of grass roots, and belongs to the broomrape family
Red bartsia - Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae).
Look for it on low-fertility roadside verges and railway cuttings from June to September, when the whole plant has a distinctly red tinge
Red bartsia - Wildlife Trusts.
Quick-fire facts
- •Scientific name Odontites vernus (formerly Odontites verna)
- •Family Orobanchaceae, which now includes the hemiparasites once placed in the figwort family, such as yellow-rattle and eyebright
- •Wildlife Trusts: it has a red tinge to stem, leaves and small flowers; height up to 40 cm; flowers June to September
- •A hemiparasite: photosynthesises but obtains extra nutrients and water from the roots of nearby grasses
- •Wildlife Trusts: popular with carder bees and wasps; one solitary bee species feeds exclusively on it
- •That bee is the red bartsia bee, Melitta tricincta, a rare southern species
- •The name honours Johann Bartsch (1709-1738), friend of Linnaeus
- •An annual that thrives where grass is short and soil fertility is low
Drill it — 5 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Red bartsia