Plants close to arable land - help with ID please

[rscott74]

I was out exploring the edges an dcorners of arable fields near Rainton Meadows where I obtained theses images

1 & 2 are the same plant. Can anyone assist with ID please?

1


2


3, 4 & 5 show red and white flowered plants which to me seem identicle apart from colouring - possilbly Redshank? Is it?

3


4


5


This shows one of the area I have been looking at and the plants don't apppear to be there by accident. Can anyone comment on why this has occurred? I've tried in vain to find out who farms the land as it has me puzzled
6

[aeshna5]

1/2 Fat Hen, Chenopodium album
3Probable Pale Persicaria, P. lapathifolia
4 Redshank, P. maculosa.

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by rscott74

I
This shows one of the area I have been looking at and the plants don't apppear to be there by accident. Can anyone comment on why this has occurred? I've tried in vain to find out who farms the land as it has me puzzled
6

Can't help with the plants but the field bit i can. It's a bit of land set aside for the purpose of conservation - its basically like a headland strip but sometimes they can be found anywere on the land. Sometimes the farmers will plough them regualy (once a year or every other year) and not sow any crop - this allows the plants of arable land to grow plants such as henbane (and many many more species) which require ground disturbance to germanate. Its not just the plants either because these bits of land and the plants in them are good for insects, mammals, birds, reptiles etc etc

[rscott74]

Thanks aeshna. Fat Hen what a funny name an da new one to me. Pale persicaria is also new. I've come across Redshank on the edges of ploughed areas before but I still can't figure out why these 2 plants appear in their hundreds on the area illustrated in image 6.

[Meta menardi]

Re last pic.

Yes, the seed bank in the soil is massive, dock seeds have been shown to be viable after 80/90 years in the soil.

Is this pic from this year, as currently there is a zero set-aside area? In previous years, every farm has had to set-aside a percentage of their land, the main rationale behind this being to reduce production. Since at the same time, fertiliser inputs have been largely uncontrolled, this has always seemed to be like driving your car with one foot hard on the accelerator and one on the brakes, but taking one of the seats out.

The plant seed bank can cause spectacular stands of weeds, like your last photo shows.

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

Re last pic.

Yes, the seed bank in the soil is massive, dock seeds have been shown to be viable after 80/90 years in the soil.

Is this pic from this year, as currently there is a zero set-aside area? In previous years, every farm has had to set-aside a percentage of their land, the main rationale behind this being to reduce production. Since at the same time, fertiliser inputs have been largely uncontrolled, this has always seemed to be like driving your car with one foot hard on the accelerator and one on the brakes, but taking one of the seats out.

The plant seed bank can cause spectacular stands of weeds, like your last photo shows.

Im lost on what you mean in the highlighted bit - i have seen many a farm this year with set-asides and some are truely massive (foot ball pitch sized) - i am also aware of at least one set-aside being yearly ploughed for the conservation of "Legousia speculum-veneris" - but it also happens to be teeming with henbane and other plants.

[village wench]

I just looked up the 'fat hen' as it rang a bell or two,wikipedia has this to say on fat hen....
Food

The leaves and young shoots may be eaten as a leaf vegetable, either steamed in its entirety, or cooked like spinach. Each plant produces tens of thousands of black seeds. These are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Quinoa is a closely related species which is grown specifically for its seeds.

Archaeologists analysing carbonized plant remains found in storage pits and ovens at iron age and Roman sites in Europe have found its seeds mixed with conventional grains and even inside the stomachs of Danish bog bodies. It remains arguable whether the weed was included in the diet deliberately.

As the common names suggest, it is also used as food (both the leaves and the seeds) for chickens, hens and other poultry. However, the nitrates in the plant can be converted very efficiently to nitrites in the rumen of cattle, leading to changes in haemoglobin and reducing the ruminants' oxygen binding capacity.

Walking stick

The stalk hardens with age. In China, the stalk had been used as a walking stick since ancient times. For example, the following passage comes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Chapter 1:

... the old man had a youthful countenance, and was carrying a fat-hen (Chenopodium album) walking stick. (Wikisource translation)

Cultivation

The species is commonly regarded as a weed but it is cultivated as a grain or vegetable crop in some parts of the world.

It is one of the more competitive weeds, capable of producing crop losses of up to 13% in corn, 25% in soybeans, and 48% in sugar beets at an average plant distribution.

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by rscott74

Thanks aeshna. Fat Hen what a funny name an da new one to me. Pale persicaria is also new. I've come across Redshank on the edges of ploughed areas before but I still can't figure out why these 2 plants appear in their hundreds on the area illustrated in image 6.

I already explained that - crops are not sown so the other seeds that are in the ground which require disturbance of the soil will germanate and grow. It is also likely this patch will be herbacide free.

Here is a ploughed set-aside growing between crops of wheat....

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by wildherbalian85

Im lost on what you mean in the highlighted bit - i have seen many a farm this year with set-asides and some are truely massive (foot ball pitch sized) - i am also aware of at least one set-aside being yearly ploughed for the conservation of "Legousia speculum-veneris" - but it also happens to be teeming with henbane and other plants.

It is a very complex system, but this year is the first year for some time that set-aside is not compulsory for every farmer. Many farmers are in various schemes to conserve different habitats, so there may be all sorts of varied management regimes going on.

There are schemes that run just for certain river catchments, for instance, and farmers may have gone onto schemes some time ago and still have time to run on their agreements.

[AlanS]

Rscott74's original identification of no. 3 as Redshank (i.e. Persicaria maculosa) is correct.
It quite commonly occurs as a white form and indeed is then often misidentified as Pale Persicaria.

True Pale Persicaria (P. lapathifolia) has the outsides of the flowers strongly dotted with yellowish glands (sticky blobs) [glands absent or sparse and minute in P. maculosa]

Alan