Tall, familiar wildflower of country roads and laneways throughout the country, this annual plant displays its pretty flowers from July to September. Reaching up to 1 metre high, the plant has small pale pink flowers (2-3mm) which have notched petals, the outer petals being longer than the inner petals. These flowers are borne on slender, solid, unspotted, stalks (which have downward pointing hairs) in terminal umbels, each umbel having up to 12 rays. The leaves are hairy, lanceolate and one- to three-pinnate, the upper leaves being quite small and often trifoliate. The egg-shaped fruits which follow are covered with tiny hooks, ensuring their distribution. This is a native plant which belongs to the family Apiaceae.
My first record of this plant is in Gibletstown, Co Wexford in 2005 when I also photographed it.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
