Filago pyramidata Broad-leaved Cudweed

Filago pyramidata ©Plantlife

An attractive, silvery-green plant that holds heads of tiny hidden flowers on the tops of short stems.

With a hand lens, the flower heads appear to comprise of a cluster of tiny pyramids of grey scales. It is often confused with common cudweed (F. vulgaris) and prefers to grow in poor arable fields, usually on chalky or sandy soils.

Its numbers have declined dramatically in the last 60 years, and there are now only 8 sites, all in south-east England. Scrub clearance and general habitat restoration, are, however, helping to increase numbers at some sites.

The main cause of its decline is agricultural change: the use of fertilisers and herbicides, loss of hedgerows and field margins and the development of highly productive crop varieties. These factors also continue to threaten its future.

Classified as Endangered and protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.