Corncockle

This annual plant flowers between May and August (2).

No conservation action has been targeted at this species.

This attractive tall cornfield plant has purple flowers which occur singly on the top of long stalks, the leaves are long and pointed and always grow opposite another leaf (4). Before the petals open, they are folded like flags (6). The spiky sepals project out beyond the petals; this feature may have earned the plant the local name of 'puck needles' in Sussex. Other local names include 'crown of the field' in Somerset and 'Popple' in Scotland, a name that dates from the Middle Ages (7).

An arable weed, particularly in cornfields (4). This species does not survive long in the seed bank unless it is buried very deeply (9).

Distributed throughout Europe but often rare where it occurs (4), possibly native only to the eastern Mediterranean region (2). It was introduced to Britain in grain, has been present since the Iron Age (8), and was once very common (9). At present, the corncockle is very rare in the UK and Ireland, and is considered nearly extinct as an arable weed, although it occasionally occurs for a brief time where wild flower seed is scattered (3), or when old pastureland is ploughed or disturbed in some other way (6). There is one 'natural' site in Kent where the species occurs in corn in the hundreds (9).

Not listed in any major conservation designations.

The large, black seeds of the corncockle give an unpleasant taste to bread, and the plant was consequently persecuted as a pest (6). Improvements in farming techniques between the World Wars allowed the seeds to be separated from imported and UK harvested grain (9). With the additional pressure of herbicides this species has been eliminated from the countryside (6).