Corn spurrey

How to recognise it

Habit

Loosely branched annual, 10–40 cm, upright or half sprawling, often in groups on bare soil.

Leaf

Linear, fleshy, 1–4 cm long, in false whorls around each node, with a distinct groove underneath. Small, papery stipules at the nodes.

Flower

White, 4–7 mm, with five entire petals and five styles, in loose clusters on long stalks. After flowering the stalks bend downwards. Flowers from June to September, mainly open in sunny weather.

Fruit/Seed

An egg-shaped capsule that splits into five valves, with small, blackish, lens-shaped seeds with a narrow rim.

Stem

Covered in small glandular hairs and slightly sticky; grains of sand sometimes stick to it.

Confusion with

Sand spurrey has pink flowers with three styles and flat, ungrooved leaves. Bedstraws also have whorled leaves, but four-lobed flowers. Procumbent pearlwort is much smaller, with tiny, often greenish flowers.

Flowering: June–September

Why grow it?

• A true indicator: where corn spurrey grows in masses, the soil is acid, sandy and lime-poor.
• The small white flowers are visited by flies, hoverflies and small bees; they can also pollinate themselves.
• The tiny dark seeds feed seed-eating birds such as finches and sparrows.
• A historic fodder plant: on poor sandy soils in the Low Countries spurrey was sown as green fodder, often after the rye harvest.
• Together with cornflower and corn marigold, it shows in a small cornfield border how sandy fields used to flower.

Corn spurrey: where does it grow best?

• In the wild in fields, waste ground, bulb fields, sandy verges and open places on acid sand or loamy sand.
• Full sun; open, bare soil.
• Dry to moderately moist, loose soil; poor to moderately rich, but always lime-poor.
• In the garden: in a border of annual cornfield flowers, a vegetable garden on sand, or a sunny, poor spot that you lightly cultivate every year.

Goes well with

• Cornflower: Blue flowers in the same border on sand.
• Corn marigold: Large yellow flowers, also a plant of acid sandy fields.
• Field pansy: Low and pale yellow, on the same open soil.
• Hare’s-foot clover: Woolly pink heads on dry, poor sand.

Corn spurrey: when and how to plant it?

1. Buy seed from a supplier of native cornfield flowers; on sandy soil it is often already present in the soil seed bank.
2. Sow in April–May where it is to grow, on loosened, weed-free soil; a second sowing in July is also possible.
3. Sow the fine seed thinly, rake in lightly and firm. Mixing it with a little sand helps you sow evenly.
4. Hardly thin out; the plants may stand close together, 10–15 cm apart.
5. Keep the soil moist until germination; after that no watering is needed.
6. Never dig up plants in the wild or from someone else’s field.

Care

Water

Not needed, except at germination in a dry spring.

Feeding

Not needed and not desirable: lime and fertiliser make the soil less suitable and let coarser plants take over.

Cultivating

Lightly turn the border every autumn or spring: as an annual cornfield plant, corn spurrey needs open, bare soil to germinate.

Letting it seed

Let the plants ripen; that way it self-sows every year.

Spreading

In a vegetable garden on sand it can form dense mats. Hoe young plants away before they flower; the roots are shallow.

Tip: Sow corn spurrey with cornflower and corn marigold on a patch of acid sandy soil that you lightly turn every year: you will have a small, flowering field like the old days.

Pruning and mowing

When: Not needed: it is an annual that dies by itself after setting seed.

How:

• Let the plants die and shed their seed; clear them in autumn or lightly dig them in.
• If you want fewer seedlings in the vegetable garden, hoe or pull the plants before the capsules ripen.
• Leave a few dead plants in the border for the birds.

Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

The capsules ripen from July to October. Collect them on a dry day, let them dry further in a paper bag and sow in spring.

Corn spurrey: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −10 °C: protect in harsh winters.

• Corn spurrey dies in autumn and overwinters as seed in the soil.
• The seed can survive in the soil for years and germinates as soon as the ground is cultivated again.
• Leave a bare field border undisturbed in winter: birds search it for seed.

Diseases and pests

• Lime: It disappears on chalky or limed soil. Choose acid sandy soil for corn spurrey and do not add lime.
• Competition: It soon disappears among tall grass or perennials. Keep a patch open by cultivating it lightly every year.
• Mats in the vegetable garden: It can form dense carpets on sand. Hoe in dry weather, before flowering.
• Poor germination: It germinates poorly in a dry spring. Sow after rain or water until germination.

Through the year

• March: Loosen the soil for a cornfield border.
• April: Sow where it is to grow; keep moist.
• May: Seedlings with fine, thread-like leaves.
• June: First white stars, open in sunny weather.
• July: Full flower; sow again for a second round.
• August: Flowers and ripening seed; the stalks bend downwards.
• September: Last flowers; collect capsules.
• October: Plants die. Lightly turn the border or leave it for the birds.

Did you know?

• The ‘whorls’ are not true whorls: they are two opposite leaves with bundles of short leaves in their axils.
• There is a larger, cultivated form of spurrey that was once grown on sandy soil as a fodder crop for livestock.
• The name Spergula probably comes from the Latin spargere, to scatter, after the seeds scattered from the capsules.