Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Cymbalaria pallida

Family

Veronicaceae

Flowering season

May to September

English distribution

It is scattered throughout the country but is more common

in northern regions

For a map see the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland

– Italian Toadflax 

Habitat

It is a neophyte that has been grown in the UK since

the early 1880s and first recorded in the wild in the

mid-1920s.

It has become and grows on walls, cracks in paving,

waste ground rocks and shingle.

Description

Italian Toadflax is perennial, semi-erect herb growing

up to 20cm.

In contrast to the similar-looking Ivy-leaved Toadflax

the flowers are bigger and the stems, leaves, petioles

and sepals are hairy.

The flower is up to 2.5cm with a spur of 9mm.

It is 2-lipped with a cylindrical spur and the mouth is

closed by swellings on the lower lip.

The petals are violet with purple lines and the swellings

are mainly white with some yellow.

There are 4 stamens and a capitate stigma which can

be seen if the lips are pulled apart.

The fruit is a capsule.

The sepals are lanceolate and slightly unequal.

The leaves are dark green and shallowly lobed.

The leaf veins are palmate