Yellow Rattle plant found in Cambridgeshire and Ouse Valley

A pride of lions hunting is a familiar sight on our television. It’s an example of tough competition in the natural world but, as the lions feed on their prey, there may well be ticks feeding by drawing blood from the lions.

The Great Ouse Valley Trust promotes conservation, restoration, landscape, wildlife and heritage of the Great Ouse Valley. (Image: The Great Ouse Valley Trust)

It’s a fight for survival. Plants compete with each other too and there’s also a competition battle going on in the Great Ouse Valley, one that has a big impact on the colour in our landscape.

Everyone loves seeing wildflowers, but grasses are generally better at drawing nutrients out of the soil, winning the competition against the flowering plants.

One plant species has found a cunning solution, one which also helps other wildflowers. It’s called Yellow Rattle and you can find it in many of the local meadows.

This pretty yellow flower is parasitic, like the ticks. Its seeds germinate in Spring and its roots spread underground.

When they come across grasses, they lock on and start drawing water and nutrients from them, starting a chain reaction. The Yellow Rattle takes these nutrients and flourishes.

This means the grass cannot grow as vigorously – it loses up to 60 per cent of its normal growth – changing the competition between the grass and the flowers.

The Yellow Rattle thrives and, with grasses growing more slowly, other species of wildflower have chance to grow.

The meadow becomes full of colour. In some patches, you can see that there is very little grass, and a bigger range of meadow flowers in bloom, including clover, vetches and orchids. That’s why botanists often call Yellow Rattle the ‘meadow-maker’.

Later in the summer, the yellow flowers fade and seed pods form. They dry a chestnut brown and, as they blow in the wind or are brushed by passing feet, the seeds rattle, giving the plant its name.

 You’ll find them along the Great Ouse Valley and in many Cambridgeshire meadows. If you want to create a mini-meadow in your garden, buying Yellow Rattle seed is a great place to start.