Bartsia, Red

Bartsia, Red

This common little plant, which has no old popular name, is an abundant weed in cornfields and by the roadside. It is not very attractive in appearance, its narrow, tapering leaves being of a dingy purplish green and the flowers of a dull rose colour, small and in onesided spikes, which usually droop at the ends.

A less common species, Bartsia viscosa, is found in marshes and damp places- the flowers are yellow, and might be mistaken for Yellow Rattle, from which it may be easily distinguished by its solitary, unspiked, yellowflowers, and by being covered with clammy down. It grows to a height of 6 to 12 inches, and is very common in many parts of Devon and Cornwall, where it sometimes grows 2 feet high.

A small annual with reddish stems, leaves and flowers; partly parasitic on the roots of grasses.