Yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor, is a welcome addition to a wildflower meadow, as it draws water and nutrients from the roots of neighbouring grasses, helping to prevent their dominance. The yellow flowers appear in summer, and their shape gives the plant its scientific name Rhinanthus, from the Greek words for ‘nose’ and ‘flower’. They are followed by an enlarged hollow seed case, which makes a rattling sound when dry, traditionally taken to indicate the best time for cutting hay.
Yellow rattle needs to have space to germinate, and the seeds need to touch bare soil. It is an annual species that germinates in spring, flowers at the height of summer, and is in full seed by late August.
The plant has been considered potentially harmful to livestock but there is little evidence for this. For humans, it is definitely not edible.
Yellow Rattle has no known medicinal uses, but it has in the past been used to make a natural dye for textiles.
We have Yellow Rattle in our mini wildflower meadow in the Physic Garden.
If you’d like to create one for yourself, a useful guide may be found here.
