RED RATTLE in 



base, decumbent or prostrate, so differing markedly in habit from the 

 Marsh Lousewort. It has a low, tufted, leafy stem. The leaves have 

 lobes each side of a common stalk, with acute pinnae, and are divided 

 nearly to the base. 



The flowers are rose-colour, irregular, large, with an oblong, 

 inflated, smooth calyx, which is unequal, 5-cleft, with leaflike lobes. 

 The corolla has a slender tube (10-14 mm.), flattened lengthwise, 

 and the upper lip is 2-dentate. The capsule exceeds the calyx, and 

 is blunt. 



Red Rattle is not more than 3 in. in height, being prostrate. The 

 flowers bloom in May, June, and July. The plant is perennial and 

 propagated by division. 



Opposite pairs of the 4 anthers are contiguous along the inner 

 edge, forming a box, and their outer edges adhere to the top of the 

 tube or hood. The honey lies at the base of the ovary, 10-14 mm. 

 from the mouth of the corolla, and the latter is compressed or flattened 

 lengthwise, hence a humble-bee can only insert part of its head. To 

 reach the honey the insect has to stretch the lips, and so opens the 

 anther-cavity, and releases a shower of pollen on the fringe of hairs on 

 the lower edge of the anthers, which thus falls on the head of the bee, 

 when it has but just touched the projecting stigma, and is ready to be 

 applied to the stigma in the next flower. The edge of the upper lip is 

 rolled back, the inner armed with projecting teeth. 



The flowers are visited by the Hymenoptera, Anthophora and 

 Bombus. 



The capsule splits open and allows the seed to fall out, or be 

 blown by the wind, around the parent plant. 



This pretty little heath and marsh plant is a humus-loving, parasitic 

 plant, and grows only on heaths on humus soil. 



The second Latin name suggests a woodland habitat, but it is 

 addicted to open heathland or wet spongy tracts on hill-sides. 



Red Rattle is also called Cock's-comb, Dead Men's Bellows, 

 Honeysuckles. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



241. Pedicularis sylvatica, L. Stem prostrate, branched below 

 only, leaves pinnatifid, segments ovate, flowers rose-colour, calyx 

 glabrous, oblong, angular. 5-fid. 



