Scientific name: Euphrasia confusa Puglsey
Common name: Eyebright
Description
Habit: A small hemiparasitic annual, to 3 cm high.
Stems: Stems prostrate or short, with 2-8 pairs of long ascending branches, usually branched again.
Leaves: Stalkless, toothed and without stipules; upper leaves alternate, lower leaves opposite.
Flowers: White or tinged with purple and with a yellow patch on the lower lip of corolla, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, stalkless in alternate axils of upper leaves often forming a loose and terminal spike, lowest flower at node 5-12; calyx of 4 sepals fused, with 4 undivided and finely pointed lobes; corolla of 4 petals fused into 2-lips, 5-9 mm across, 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; normally the only Eyebright to flower in May.
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: Short grassland in exposed situations.Distribution: Very local.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No