Purple Toadflax
Purple Toadflax - Linaria purpurea
Medium height, tufted, hairless plant, stems erect to ascending, often branched above. Leaves linear, numerous, the lower whorled. Flowers purple or purplish violet 9 to 12 mm, in long, rather dense tapered racemes, the spur 5 mm long and curved.
Waste places, disturbed ground and cultivated land.
June to August.
Perennial.
Locally naturalised, mainly in England.
Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 88 of the 617 tetrads.
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Chromatomyia horticola
The larvae of the Agromyzid fly Chromatomyia horticola mines the leaves of various plants, including Purple Toadflax, creating an upper-surface (sometimes lower surface also) corridor. Frass appears in isolated grains. Pupation takes place within the mine, usually in a lower-surface, puparial chamber.





