Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) Seed
Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) Seed
Origin: English (see description below), 2025 harvest
Sow: July to end December
Seeding rate: 0.5 - 1g per square metre
Suitable for:
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Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) Seed
Yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor, is the only single species seed we sell. It can be an important plant for meadow creation. It's otherwise known as Hay rattle, as it was said to herald the harvest when it set seed. It's an attractive annual, quick to appear through existing sward in early spring. Yellow Rattle is hemi-parasitic, like Eyebright - a distant relation - and Mistletoe. This mean that is photosynthesises, but also needs nutrients from a host plant. Rhinanthus significantly reduces the vigour of some other plants, including - most helpfully - grasses. Not all grasses though - the more vigorous, coarser species will overwhelm it. If you have lots of the thug in chief - perennial rye grass - in an area where you want to have Rattle, I'm afraid it's a lost cause. Some plants, like plantains and Oxeye daisy, have developed their own strategies to resist Yellow Rattle, so do well in swards with large Rhinanthus populations.
Once common but disliked by farmers - unsurprisingly - Yellow rattle is an attractive plant with a yellow snapdragon type of flower which pollinators find helpful too, particularly bumblebees and butterflies. It's said to represent a cockscomb, hence another of its synonyms.
Yellow rattle is an important part of most of our seed mixes, but as an individual species it can be added to existing grass if it is cut very short and raked or chain harrowed to open it up. If you're doing this, aim to have at least 50% of the earth showing, and tread in or lightly roll the seeded area to ensure good soil contact. Rattle must be sown in late summer up to the year end; the seed needs to get cold to germinate. Avoid cutting the seedlings as they appear, and the developing plants will significantly reduce the vigour of grasses, enabling other wildflowers to compete with them more effectively. When they die back they leave a helpful space for other species to use. We've written more about Rattle in our blog.
Our Seed
Rhinanthus seed has limited viability over time so we always make sure we supply the freshest seed available. It also needs to be processed carefully, which goes some way to explaining the cost of it. We think there at least 6 different subspecies in the UK, which vary a fair bit visually.
Our seed is all UK origin. Over the season we offer several options of English seed, generally speaking harvested from neutral or calcareous sites.
We have our Yellow Rattle seed independently tested for successful germination, and ask harvesters for at least 90% viability.
Please sow between August and end December.
Yellow rattle seed is available in larger quantities at our Habitat Aid website.
Supplier: Heritage Seeds, Kevin Wharf, Higher Blacklands Farm, Bright Seeds, Will Steel
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The seeds were delivered very promptly and I am looking forward to seeing the bees, hoverflies and butterflies enjoying the flowers next summer.
Not sure why you’ve asked for a review 6 days after sending seed that is still sat in the packet it arrived in so nothing to review. All I can say is quick delivery, thanks. Perhaps come back to me next year!
Hi Ade - thank you for taking the trouble to post your review. We agree - as we say in our email asking for reviews it does seem daft.
It is however helpful for us commercially to show that people's purchasing experience is as expected - i.e. that we're not running some kind of scam.
We would like to ask customers how their seed performs, but different species and mixes have different germination periods which makes it virtually impossible to automate.
British Wildflower Seeds
The whole ordering and delivery process was very efficient with an easy to use website. Delivery was on time with my seeds well packaged. I scattered them yesterday - I’ll let you know how they are next summer.
Easy to use website and good delivery. I bought Yellow rattle seeds last year which I split into 2 seeding batches. The earlier seeding had limited success. I noticed at the 2nd seeding that the seed had turned darker so I wasn't surprised when it didn't germinate. This year I used all seed within a few days of arriving as I'd done all the prep of scarifying in advance. Fingers crossed better germination rates this year! Make sure you use it fresh!
Delivery was swift, happy to have purchased these yellow rattle seeds, but from a financial perspective, wish I had shopped around a bit more as they seem to be about twice the price of yellow rattle from a similar native seed seller. Perhaps that is because this particular company offer regional seed source options, which is great.