Scientific name: Euphrasia arctica Lange ex Rostrup
Common name: Eyebright
Description
Habit: A small hemiparasitic annual, up to 30 cm.
Stems: Erect at least at the top, robust, with 0-5 pairs of branches, sometimes again branched.
Leaves: Stalkless, without stipules; upper leaves alternate, large, lower leaves opposite and bluntly toothed.
Flowers: White to lilac lower lip with a yellow patch, lilac to purple (sometimes white) upper lip, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, stalkless in axils of bracts, often forming a loose and terminal spike, lowest flower at node 4 or higher; bracts and calyx with numerous, short and gland-tipped hairs (visible with a hand-lens against the light); calyx of 4 sepals fused, with 4 undivided and finely pointed lobes; corolla of 4 petals fused into 2-lips, with a slender corolla tube, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip deeply 3-lobed with notched lobes; stamens 4, borne on corolla tube; ovary superior, 2-celled, style 1.
Fruits: A capsule with many seeds, twice as long as broad, with long fine hairs.
Euphrasia is a difficult group, the species boundaries complicated by hybridisation. Several plants are necessary for identification.
Habitat: Roadsides, pastures.Distribution: Common, except in south-west of the region.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No