Pignut - Conopodium majus

Description

Short to medium plant, stem erect, slightly ridged and hollow after flowering. Upper leaves 2 to 3 pinnate with linear lobes and prominent sheathed bases. Flowers white, often brown veined on the back 1 to 3 mm, borne in umbels of 3 to 7 cm with 6 to 12 rays, bracts usually absent. Fruit oblong 3 to 4 mm with obscure ridges and erect styles.

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

Hairless; bracteoles but usually no bracts; fruits rounded and glabrous, with low rounded ridges

Habitat

Open woodland, rough grassland and scrub.

When to see it

May to July.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Fairly common throughout most of Britain, though scarce in East Anglia.

VC55 Status

Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 362 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, locally frequent

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Pignut
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Apiales
Family:
Apiaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
210
First record:
23/04/2007 (Dave Wood)
Last record:
12/07/2024 (Higgott, Mike)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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