Yellow Bartsia - Parentucellia viscosa

An erect, generally unbranched, short to medium, glandular hairy plant. Leaves are opposite, oblong to lanceolate, pointed, unstalked and coarsely toothed. Flowers usually yellow, 16 to 24 mm long in spikes, 2 lipped, open mouthed, the lower lip 3 lobed, the upper hooded.

Damp, open grassy places on sandy soils, often by tracks. It normally occurs in drier dune-slacks and in reclaimed heath-pasture, but is also found on pathsides, rough and scrubby grassland and field-borders, and increasingly in re-seeded amenity grasslands and waste places. It thrives on disturbance.

Flowering June to September.

Hemiparasitic annual.

Local in distribution. This species has increased northwards and eastwards in Britain, largely through introductions from seed mixtures. Conversely, the re-seeding of old pasture has led to some decline over the same period at inland sites in S.W. England.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. It was not found in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire the first VC55 record came from Mountsorrel in 1997.