Circaea species - Enchanter’s-Nightshade

This genus is unmistakable in flower, but there are two species and they can be difficult to separate.

Circaea lutetiana - Enchanter's-nightshade

Most reliable differences are:

- Leaves rounded or slightly notched at base

- Leaves narrow gradually to the pointed tip

- Leaves not strongly toothed, but with sinuate edges

- Leaf stalks equally hairy all round

- Calyx densely glandular

- All open flowers well spaced

- No bracts at base of individual flower stalks

Circaea alpina x lutetiana = C. x intermedia - Hybrid Enchanter's-nightshade

Most reliable differences are:

- Leaves inverted heart-shaped, deeply notched at base

- Leaves narrow abruptly to the pointed tip

- Leaves clearly toothed

- Leaf stalks much more hairy on upper side than lower (often hairless on lower side)

- Topmost open flowers often rather clustered together

- Flowers have a tiny bract at base of each stalk, difficult to see

This plant is a sterile hybrid between Enchanter's Nightshade and Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade and manages to exist in so many places where one parent is absent.