lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort

[goatshed]

If anyone (EU only) would like any seed I'll try to collect some, though I believe it can take up to ten years to flower (I don't know how true that is), and you also need some willow, alder or poplar trees to sow it against the roots. It likes moist woodland, will tolerate a small amount of sun - we have very boggy woodland here and have swathes of it.
If nobody wants any, it's worth posting a pic anyway as it's so pretty.

[Lesley Cox]

I have wanted this plant ever since I saw it at Sissinghurst almost 30 years ago. I even have the willows, alders and poplars, all ready to receive the seeds - BUT - it is not on our Bio Index!

[Lesley Cox]

YES IT IS! YES IT IS! But it wasn't, quite recently, so someone must actually be DOing something with the Biosecurity Index. I'll PM you immediately Gil.
Oh damn, I see EU only. I'll contact a friend.

[goatshed]

Well, I put EU only as I saw it was on a list of weeds for NZ (so probably elsewhere as well), but you're probably more up to date with it than I am. I don't want to be responsible for a Japanese Knotweed type epidemic. We've got loads of Japanese knotweed in Creuse too if you want any (just kidding).

[gote]

I would certainly like to give it a try.
I have more elders than I care for.
Seeds would be very appreciated.
thank you for the offer
Göte 

[Gail]

Hi Gill, if you're not too inundated with requests, I'd love to try some.  There is a mill garden near here that has sweeps of it, including lots of the rare white form but sadly they seem to have stopped opening to the public.

[goatshed]

I'll certainly do my best to get some, I think the seed pods are explosive, so it's going to be a bit hit or miss. I had a look today, no sign of any yet.

[goatshed]

I finally managed to get a few seeds, they're real devils to collect, either not quite ripe or the pods have already exploded. I put a jar of seedheads in my propagator so the seeds would bounce off the walls when the pods exploded - that seemed to do the trick.
It works out at about 9 seeds each! I've no idea if they'll be viable, but if you haven't pm'd me your address already, please do.

[goatshed]

Sorry for the delay (busy time of year!) - I'll be posting tomorrow to the three that sent me addresses (and a PM to the fourth)