Weasel's Snout

I promised, a few posts ago, that my next offering would be on "The Green One", but other diversions have cropped up! "The Green One" is on its way, I promise. In the meantime......

Having had a piece of ground at the bottom of the garden de-turfed in preparation to plant a wild flower mix, I was intrigued to find this little plant growing up from the bare soil. It has been in flower for about two months and is like a small snapdragon. The wild flower key showed me that it might be Weasel's Snout - a plant whose range is dropping dramatically and it is becoming scarce. I had never seen the plant before.

I e-mailed some photos to Martin Sandford at the Suffolk Biological Records Centre (see below), and he was able to confirm the find! 

Weasel's Snout is an archaeophyte...... in other words this:

"Any plant which was introduced to an area by humans (or arrived naturally, but from an area in which it was present as a human introduction) and became naturalised before 1500 CE (but especially in prehistoric times)"

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/archaeophyte

Martin Sanford

Suffolk Biological Records Centre

Ipswich Museum

High Street

Ipswich

SuffolkIP1 3QH

Tel: 01473 433547

Fax: 01473 433558

E-mail martin.sanford@suffolk.gov.uk

Why is it called Weasel's Snout? Anyone know?

The links below give more info about the plant in Suffolk and its distribution elsewhere in the UK

List of Rare Plants in Suffolk:

http://www.suffolkbrc.org.uk/public_html/sites/default/files/rpr.PDF

Flyer for "A Flora of Suffolk":

http://www.suffolkbrc.org.uk/public_html/sites/default/files/A%20Flora%20of%20Suffolk%20flyer.pdf

The distribution of Weasel's Snout in UK:

http://plantnetwork.org/projects/datasheets/misooron.pdf