Yellow rattle, little yellow rattle

Herbs profile

Latin Name: Rhinanthus minor
Rhinos: Greek “trunk,” upper lip of flower extended like a trunk
Anthos: Greek “flower”
Minor: Latin “small”
Family: Summerroot Family/Orobanchaceae
Feed type: Herbs

Description yellow rattle, little yellow rattle (Rhinanthus Minor)

The little yellow rattle is an annual, optional semi-parasitic plant. It grows up to 50 cm high.

The little yellow rattle penetrates the water-conducting tissues of the host plants with small suction processes and removes minerals and nutrients from them. However, it can also do without a host plant. The leaves sit opposite each other on the stem. In the upper regions, the flowers sit individually in the leaf axils of yellowish trailing leaves and carry a widely inflated, bare calyx.

The yellow flowers have two bluish teeth on the upper lip. After flowering, the calyxes also dry out. The characteristic rattling is caused by the loose seeds in the fruit capsules.

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Occurrence little yellow rattle

The little yellow rattle prefers to colonize dry, low-calcification meagre grasslands and meadows.

Effect little yellow rattle

The little yellow rattle plants are slightly poisonous in green, but unproblematic in hay.

The ingredient aucubin has antibiotic properties against bacteria (staphylococci, meningococci and salmonella), but can cause inflammations in the gastrointestinal tract in increased doses. In earlier times the little yellow rattle was used as an antiparasitic e.g. against head lice.

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