Habitat Wildflower Guide Arable habitats Habitat description Arable land is land that is farmed for crops. Arable land often has a low plant diversity because there is usually just one crop species in the entire field. The most diverse part of arable fields is usually the field edges where crop seed is not sown. Environmentally- friendly farmers leave a margin around their fields (called a Wildlife Strip or Conservation Headland) where they don’t spray pesticides or fertilisers. This encourages wild plants to grow. Wild arable plants are beneficial because they provide food for many different invertebrates such as ground beetles and spiders, which are predators of crop pests such as aphids. This reduces the need to spray the crops with pesticides. The invertebrates that live on and around these wild plants are also food for birds such as Yellowhammers, Skylarks and Lapwings, which are hunted by larger birds like Buzzards and Harriers. Arable Folklore Key locations.. While Fat-hen is commonly Plantlife’s flagship nature reserve regarded in the UK as a highly is Ranscombe Farm in Kent. It is a working farm and a country park competitive weed in Asia it is that is accessible to the public. The fields have a high diversity of cultivated as a grain or vegetable arable flora, including rare plants crop. As the plant ages, the stalk such as Ground Pine and Broad- leaved Cudweed. becomes harder and, due to One to look out for.. this property, the stalks have Corncockle (Agrostemma githago) been used as walking sticks A rare hairy plant with large dark in China since ancient times. pink flowers now extinct in the wild. Cleavers (also known as Goosegrass or Stickyweed) can be dried and roasted to make a coffee substitute. Cleavers can also be made into tea and has been used to treat skin problems as well as illnesses such as tonsillitis.

www.wildaboutplants.org.uk Other species to look out for...

Fat-hen Shepherd’s-purse Chenopodium album Capsella bursa-pastoris Fat-hen is one of several This plant is unusual Goosefoot species, which because it flowers have triangular-shaped almost all year round. leaves. The tiny flowers are The small white clustered and have no petals. flowers are at the ends of the stems in small Long-headed Poppy groups. The fruits are held on stalks Papaver dubium that are usually at right angles to the main stem. Poppies are extremely Photograph: Andrew Gagg, Plantlife noticeable when in flower as they have large, bright Pineappleweed red petals. The Long-headed Matricaria discoidea Poppy can be distinguished from the other red-flowered Pineappleweed is poppies by its elongated so-called because hairless fruits. it smells strongly of Photograph: Andrew Gagg, Plantlife pineapples when it is crushed. The greenish- yellow flowerheads are Common Fumitory distinct because they are Fumaria officinalis like the centre of a large daisy flower but without the This plant grows in a white outer petals. scrambling way and Photograph: Andrew Gagg, Plantlife is usually less than 20 cm in height. It is most Black-bindweed often found in chalky or Fallopia convolvulus sandy arable fields. The flowers are narrow and Black-bindweed is a climbing elongated, and are pale plant that can grow very fast. pink with a dark red tip. The leaves are triangular and the fruits are a dull black Redshank colour. It is a weed that Persicaria maculosa damages other plants by entwining itself around them. This also makes it Redshank has more difficult to harvest crops. small pink flowers Photograph: Andrew Gagg, Plantlife and the leaves often have a black Nipplewort blotch in the centre. Lapsana communis This plant often self- pollinates but can Nipplewort is different from also be pollinated its close relatives such as by insects. the hawkbits because the Photograph: Ann Van Roy flower stems are much more branched. The thin leaves are rounded and have large teeth. Photograph: Bill Tyne

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