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Rhinanthus minor
Also called Yellow rattle, Cockscomb, Common Yellow Rattle, Narrow Leaved Yellow Rattle, Hay Rattle, Rattlebox
Rhinanthus minor, known as yellow rattle, is a herbaceous wildflower in the genus Rhinanthus in the broomrape family. It has circumpolar distribution in Europe, Russia, western Asia, and northern North America. An annual plant, yellow rattle grows up to 10–50 centimetres (3.9–19.7 in) tall, with upright stems and opposite, simple leaves. The fruit is a dry capsule, with loose, rattling seeds.
The preferred habitat of Rhinanthus minor is dry fields or meadows; it tolerates a wide range of soil types. It flowers in the summer between May and September. It is hemiparasitic, notably on Poaceae (grasses) and Fabaceae (legumes), and farmers consider it to be a pest, as it reduces grass growth.
Yellow rattle is used to proactively create or restore wildflower meadows. It is used to reduce the dominance of grasses, when more expensive methods, such as removing the nutrient-rich topsoil, or impractical methods, such as changing the timing and intensity of grazing, cannot be used. This improves the chances of other species of flowers becoming established. According to Natural England, the optimum density of yellow rattle plants needed to enable other species to be introduced is 100 to 200 per m2. Studies have shown that the plant's role in maintaining species diversity is through differential growth suppression effects and enhanced soil nutrient recycling.
The yellow rattle seed is sown thinly onto grassland where gaps have been created, or where all the grass has been cut back and the clippings removed. Seeds can be also be introduced by the spreading of green hay. The grass should be kept short until the beginning of March, after which the seedlings become established.
Rhinanthus minor is found in Europe, western Russia, western Siberia, northern USA and throughout Canada. The preferred habitat of Rhinanthus minor is dry fields or meadows, where its flowering period is in the summer between May and September, but it can thrive with semi-natural species-rich water-meadows. It can tolerate a wide range of soil types but does not grow where the soil has a pH less than 5.0. Yellow rattle flowers are pollinated by bumblebees during the summer months; the plant is also capable of self-fertilization.
European yellow rattle · Greater yellow-rattle · Aristate Yellow Rattle · Rhinanthus oesilensis · Hay Rattle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rhinanthus minor by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
