The destroyer of socks

This afternoon found me on my hands an knees on the edge of a local sugar beet field. The reason? I was following up some gen from an acquaintance in the village of a scarce arable plant had been seen.

It didn't take me long to find lots of it. Spreading Hedge-parsley Torilis arvensis. In some places it is also known as the Tall Sock-destroyer, which sounds like the crappest superhero ever!

It's an annual herb, flowering from June to October. The seeds are mainly autumn germinating and are thought to be relatively short-lived in clay soils but can be longer lived in free-draining soils. Seeds germinate between October and December and seedlings form an overwintering rosette. The seeds are covered in long, slender spines which are hooked at the very tip.

Here they are on the right compared to ones from a nearby Upright Hedge-parsley Torilis japonica. The size difference and shape is really obvious when side by side.

Like many arable plants it has declined sharply in the last 60 years, and is now only found in around 70 10km squares. So it's good to see it doing well in my small corner of Cambridgeshire.