SHARP-LEAVED FLUELLEN
Kickxia elatine
Plantain Family [Plantaginaceae] 
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Plantain Family [Plantaginaceae]
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status
flower
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petals
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stem
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| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| A rather sprawling plant but growing up to 50cm long. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| The leaves are an unusual shape if a little variable. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| The stems are softly-hairy with longish hairs. The flowers and leaves usually occur together on the stem, with leaves attached via a short thick to the stem and flowers on a long thin stalk. The leaf-flower pairs are well separated on the stem. There are several as-yet unopened flower buds just above dead centre. Other flowers more to the right are opened but overexposure in the photograph may have made them appear whiter than they perhaps are(?). Empty sepal cups lower down show absent spent flowers. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| Rear views of the opened flowers: they are mostly white with pale-green markings, a flat(ish) seaside spade-like form and with a spur at the rear. The flower at the bottom shows two pale-green pale-green markings on the 'spade'; the 'rear' sepals can be seen around the top of the 'spade'. The leaves exhibit considerable variation in leaf shape. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| The underside view of the seaside spade shape of the rear of the flower: There is a middle lip (top) here curved downwards. The tapered curved spur at the rear is hollow inside but sealed at the pointed end and holds nectar. There are two green sepals either side of the spur. Another longer two can be partially seen behind the 'spade' at the sides. [The fifth sepal is hidden behind the centre of the 'spade'. |
| 21st June 2014, unknown place. | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
| The leaves have two pointed triangular lobes at their base pointing away or slightly backwardly from the stem they are growing from. Their end-tip is also pointed. But a few very prominent veins on the obverse. A flower dangles on a long and very thin stalk beneath. |
| 27th April 2018, unknown place. | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
| Leaves hairy and hastate in shape, but they haven't got as long hairs as on the main stem where the flower stalk meets the main stem. Each very long very thin flower stalk supports a single spurred flower. But the leaf shape exhibits considerable variation in shape between plants. |
| 27th April 2018, unknown place. | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
| The spur at the back of the flower is long and narrowly-conical but the mouth of the spur is completely closed by a boss-like swelling on the lower lip of the flower. the flower is 7 and 12mm long including the spur (which is about half the length of the whole flower). There are two large, green, ~triangular sepals each side of the place where the flower attaches to the long drooping flower stalk, which is itself bent at ~right-angles to hold the flower at an angle. |
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| unknown date and place | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
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A normal view of the flower: the 5 hairy sepals (of various widths) loosely cupping the flower (only 3 can be seen from this angle). The 'spade' is now seen to have two pale-yellow bumps on its top surface (only 1 can be seen from this angle). It is wearing a Donald Trump Duck Cap with the deep-purple front flap(s) turned up. At the rear is the hollow spur (straight and long in this example) holding the nectar which insects must endeavour to sip, necessitating rubbing their bodies against everything inside the flower, especially the anthers with their pollen to spread elsewhere. Well, they would, but apparently the boss-like yellow and purple spurs at the front completely block the way in.
The corolla is between 7 to 12mm long including the spur, which is about half the total length (it is a bit longer than that in this specimen!). |
| 25th Aug 2011, a farm, IoW | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
| A top view of the flower; the deep-purple Donald Trump Duck baseball cap flap is now seen to be in two halves. On the lower cream coloured petal are two egg-shaped lumps which are a deeper yellow. The lowest lip is now seen to be cut in two places to make a 3-lipped lower petal, with the middle lip reflexed beneath the flower. 5 petals in all, plus two 'eggs'. The out-of-focus spur can be seen at the top of the photo. |
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| unknown date and place | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
| A full-frontal view of the flower; cream coloured lower lip cut into three, the two yellow 'eggs' near the centre, and the deep-purple Donald Trump Duck baseball cap flap in two halves sticking upwards. Overall, the flower is fairly flat apart from the two 'eggs' (lumps) and the two 'flaps'. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| If you have a Windozey computer, do not worry, this is not the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) but rather showing two flowering branches with regular spacing of leaves and flowers. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| The flowers and leaves usually occur together on the stem, with leaves attached to it via a short thick to the stem and flowers on a long thin stalk. The leaf-flower pairs are well separated on the stem. Sometimes the leaves occur without any accompanying flower stalk, or with a branch stalk instead. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| The leaves are a bit variable: sometimes they have (partly) parallel-sides [top left], but they always curve to a blunt point at the tip. The rear is always some kind of hastate shape - two slightly-wider wings each side, and straight or curved (heart-shaped) at the stem end. The leaf stem is always thicker and much shorter than the flower stalks. Leaves are also hairy, as is most of the plant apart from the flower (which is only hairy inside Donald Ducks mouth). |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| A flower with a spur and two sepals loosely around it. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| Hairy leaves. |
| 11th Aug 2008, Wellow, Bath, Somerset. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Mike Cotterill |
| Flowers not yet fully opened; still cupped by 5 sepals which will later present the flower in an appropriate position. |
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Not to be semantically confused with : Easily mistaken for : Round-Leaved Fluellen (Kickxia spuria) but that has heart-shaped cardioidal leaves with a blunt triangular taper at the end.
Some similarities to :
Slight resemblance to : Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Features : see text. It is an Archaeophyte and grows in arable fields and field edges on light soils, usually on limey soils. The plant exhibits considerable variation in both leaf shape, hairiness and in flower shape, as can be seen in the above photos from the various contributors. These issues might in future be addressed taxonomically by assigning different 'varieties' (var.) to them. The differences should be noticeable in the two or three examples shown above. The plant is common in England from the North of England to North Wales and Lincolnshire. In Ireland it is found in the South and East. Also occurs in the Channel Islands. |
 Kickxia
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elatine
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⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ |
Plantaginaceae
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 Kickxia (Fluellens) |
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Plantain Family [Plantaginaceae]
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BSBI maps