Valerianella rimosa
Broad-fruited Cornsalad

Valerianella rimosa ©Phil Wilson

A small plant with tender leaves, very like the well-known lamb’s lettuce. Despite its small lilac flowers found in groups on the ends of its branching stems, it remains quite inconspicuous.

It is mainly found in arable field margins and similar disturbed ground, usually on chalky soils in southern England. It has declined rapidly over the past 60 years and is now only regularly found in only 8 arable sites and a few cliff or quarry sites.

It is principally threatened by modern agricultural methods such as the use of herbicides and fertilisers, the development of highly productive crop varieties, the loss of field margins, the loss of traditional crop rotations and the overgrowth of neglected marginal arable land.

Classified as Endangered.