France in Focus

This plant/weed has started to invade one of our paddocks.
I don't know what it is and googling didn't help, but I'm sure (or hope) that some of you gardening experts will recognise it.
In previous years there were only a few small patches of it but this year it has really taken off.
Purple flowers usually mean a plant aint good for horses , so I need to know what it is and, if necessary, how get rid of it.
It was only when I enlarged the photo I realised that each of the 'fluffy balls' are actually made up of about 20 miniscule flowers.
To give you a sense scale, the full sprig shown in the second photo is about 30cm or 12" long...

Meadow sage / Clary Salvia pratensis or a related salvia?

Pl@ntNet is very good at identifying plants worldwide using photographs. There are Android/Apple versions at https://plantnet.org for your phone/tablet or you can just drop an image onto this web page
https://identify.plantnet.org

We have some in the paddock too, especially on parts the boys have constant access to which get a bit poached. None has so far been eaten.

That Plantnet website is amazing! Thanks Elsie!
I dropped a photo in the box and it gave me an instant ID... Mentha pulegium - Pennyroyal.

As I suspected, it's toxic to horses and some of the info I've just read about it makes scarey reading, especially the bit about causing abortions...bearing in mind we have just taken delivery of the pregnant surrogate mare who is carrying our first ET foal.

The good thing is - I now know what it is - and that at the moment it seems to be growing in just one of our paddocks, which we don't need to use - yes Veem, it's a paddock that got constantly churned up by a nutter of a livery horse.

I'll check the other paddocks then research the best method of getting rid of it...thanks to you all for your help.

There's always something new ready to kill our horses! It's of course a great worry to you with a pregnant mare at your place. We have so little, chiefly near the water trough, that I shall be able to pull it by hand.

Thanks for the heads up Crystal.

I don't suppose horses would choose to eat it if there's plenty of grass elsewhere, but we have good reason to be extra vigilant at the moment.

That's a useful site for plant ID, thanks for the link Elsie

Crystal wrote: ↑Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:57 pm I don't suppose horses would choose to eat it if there's plenty of grass elsewhere, but we have good reason to be extra vigilant at the moment.

This morning whilst pooh picking I took the time to watch one of the horses grazing an area where there were 2 or 3 plants in flower. He very carefully grazed around them and didn't give those plants a thought.

Sounds a bit like ragwort in its effect on animals,
Ragwort isn't eaten by cows or horses in its green state but if dry, like in hay or its dried on the stem in the heat, its very poisonous.
My father was a farmer in the New Forest and in the early fifties lost a herd of heifers to ragwort poisoning the summer being very hot, its effect wasn't known back then.
The poison did huge damage to the animals liver and they got the staggers, falling over and had to be put down.