Pimpernel

Scientific Name:

Anagallis arvensis

Other Common Names:

Scarlet Pimpernel, Blue Pimpernel, Red Pimpernel, Red Chickweed, Shepherds Clock, Shepherd’s Weather-glass, Poor Man’s Weather-glass, Poorman’s Barometer

Status:

Native to Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa.

Plant Description:

Small, low growing, perennial or annual herb with creeping to weakly erect, square-angular, stems (brown with mature), 5-30 cm long, hairless. Leaves are opposite, ovate to oblong-ovate in shape or occasionally narrow, 5-25 mm long and stalkless.

Flowers red, pink, orange or blue (the latter two colours being most common) and five petalled with 5 pointed, alternate sepals. Fruit is a brown, round but 5-ridged capsule, 3-5 mm diameter.

Habitat:

Widespread weed of pastures, cultivation, gardens, disturbed and waste areas. Common on the banks of water courses and the edges of swamps and lakes.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray, Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, Gippsland	S0, *S1	W0, W1, W2

*may be found on or fringing saline sites during the wetter parts of the year

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