Corncockles

It’s the corncockle season, when furry buds open into sturdy, stunningly marked, bright flowers, one per stalk.

I told Chokri they were poisonous out of a sense of responsibility (you never know), and since then he’s looked askance at them.

To my “Don’t you think they’re beautiful,” he replied “I think they’re poisonous”.

But so are lots of things: oleanders, foxgloves, wisteria pods, sweet pea seeds, lilies-of-the-valley …

A while back I mentioned to him about foxgloves yielding digitalis, the heart medicine, and I could see he was impressed.

So in the spirit of being an advocate of corncockles, I looked them up on the net. Lo and behold, among a number of other things, they’ve been used to treat cancer!

I can’t wait to tell Chokri.

Meantime the flowers obviously have another enemy in these small snails, which are abundant at the moment.