Keeled-fruited Cornsalad

Keeled-fruited Cornsalad - Valerianella carinata

Description

Low to medium hairless plant. Flowers pale pinkish or bluish, tiny in flat clusters.  Similar to other Cornsalads, but the fruits are deeply grooved.

Similar Species

other corn-salads

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Ripe fruits are essential for identification; this plant cannot be verified from photos of the plant or flowers.

Fruit is about as thick as wide (squarish in x-section), and much longer than wide or thick, with a deep groove on the abaxial face (i.e to side furthest from the axis)

Recording advice

The fruits need to be photographed, showing the deep grooves, or the specimen needs to be checked by an expert

Habitat

Walls, rocks and disturbed land.

When to see it

Flowers April to June.

Life History

Annual.

UK Status

Local north as far as Yorkshire, rare elsewhere.

VC55 Status

Local and possibly increasing in Leicestershire and Rutland, but probably under-recorded in the past due to similarity to other corn-salads. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 2 of the 617 tetrads.

In the VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Alien; archaeophyte.   

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but does not meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

No additional images available for this species.

All NatureSpot records