Purple ramping-fumitory

Description

Fumaria purpurea, known as purple ramping-fumitory, is an annual flowering herbaceous plant in the poppy family which is endemic to the British Isles. A sprawling or climbing plant with brittle stems which exude white sap when broken, up to about 2 m tall, typically found growing up through hedges. The whole plant is hairless and smooth, with pale green stems and leaves, and flowers that range from white through to dark purple, but generally pink. The leaves are flat but often curled and deeply divided into numerous irregular-shaped lobes, based on multiples of three (a ternate pattern). The inflorescence is a raceme with 15-24 individual flowers on short recurved stalks, each hermaphroditic flower being 10–13 mm long, with large oval sepals up to 6.5 mm in length, and 4 petals arranged into a characteristic tube shape. The fruits are roughly spherical, 2.5 mm in diameter, with a distinct ring or neck at the base when fresh. Distinctive features for separating this species from other fumitories are the purplish flowers that are strongly bent back along the stalk, the large sepals and neck on the fruits.