Quite common on bare, waste ground, embankments and rubbish dumps, Purple Toadflax bears a tall, tapering spike of violet-coloured flowers which reaches 90 cm. These little two-lipped flowers (8 – 12 mm) have fringes of little hairs on the inner surface of their open mouths and long spurs curving downward beneath. The pointed, narrow, grey-green leaves are untoothed, the lower in whorls, the upper alternate. Originally from Italy, this is an introduced perennial which escaped from cultivation, it blooms from June to October and belongs to the Plantaginaceae family.
I first recorded this plant in Dalkey, Co Dublin in 2005 and photographed it in Co Wexford in 2010.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
