Corncockle Agrostemma githago
Table of Contents
Corncockle is a hardy annual wildflower and a member of the carnation family of plants. Once abundant on arable farmland, it has been nearly driven to extinction due to modern farming practices and chemical use. It’s now making a comeback as its included on a cornfield annuals wildflower seed mixture.
General information
Plant family: Caryophyllaceae
Aliases: Bastard nigella, corn pink, joy of love
Flowering period: May – September
Flower colour: Pink – purple
Preferred soil type: Most types, free draining
Habitat: Field margins, waste areas, disturbed ground
Status: Nearly extinct
A hardy, annual wildflower, with an upright growth habit. It can reach a metre in height and produces a solitary pink – purple flower. It’s primary found on waste ground and field margins are is relies on bare, disturbed soils to re-establish itself. Once a very common plant in cornfields, however in recent years, it has been virtually wiped out due to modern agricultural practices.
It remains virtually extinct on agricultural land, but is making a resurgence as corn-cockle is now included in cornfield annual seed mixtures, along with poppies, cornflowers, corn marigold and corn chamomile. All parts of corncockle are poisonous and has come in for some bad press, with much being written, often with conflicting views, for more info you can checkout this article.
Identification
Flowers: The large, shuttlecock or trumpet shaped, bright pink – purple flowers can measure 35mm across. The flowers have 5 petals, which are surrounded by 5 tooth-like, pointed sepals. When the flowers are fully open, dark blue streaks and a white center is revealed.
Leaves: The leaves are narrow, lanceolate and pointed, they are pale green and measure between 5 – 15cm in length.
Corncockle images
Click to enlarge
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to use, share and adapt any of the images on this page, under the condition we receive a followed backlink to our website https://diversegardens.co.uk as the image source.
