Corncockle Corner

Corncockles were all but extinct in this country a few years ago. In the sense of "only one left" all but extinct.

So, why are there so many about these days. They seem to be everywhere around here.

Apparently it all comes down to a campaign by the BBC Countryfile programme in 2014, which gave out large numbers of the seeds in packets of wildlife seeds distributed to willing viewers, who presumably either sowed them in their gardens, or lobbed them out of car windows into verges as an act of so called "guerilla" gardening.

Of course, it being a BBC sponsored operation, they had to be criticised by the right wing media, in this case The Telegraph, who accused them of spreading death throughout the land; corncockle, like many many other common garden plants, is a bit poisonous if you eat tons of it.

Luckily, no corncockle holocaust came about, and so their increasing numbers decorate the countryside today. Like at this bend on the road on the way to Hawton, where I suspect a bit of quiet sowing has taken place.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.07.16