In this arable field grew about 130 different species of spontaneous plants. Mostly those 'weeds' were messicoles, plants with a life cycle adapted to cereals. Most of them were small or very small, nearly invisible between the triticale stalks.
Now everything has changed. Some years ago the tenancy has been taken over and the new tenant and this farmer uses different techniques. As a consequence the weeds have changed also. The smaller messicoles are gone and other species appeared, big vigourous plants that occupy a lot of space. There are only about thirty different species now, but those are present in large amounts. They are very competitive annual plants that grow fast when there is a lot of nitrogen in the soil, and they multiply quickly. They profit from circumstances fit for corn or sunflowers or another row crop where a lot of fertilizer is used. Because those weeds are less sensitive as other spontaneaous plants to herbicides or fungicides they can survive for a long time even in intensively treated fields.
A beautiful exemplar of Thornapple (Datura stramonium) grows here. A small plant newly germed when the triticale was still growing, became after harvest in just a few weeks a big plant.
Here a colony in a corn field. Thornapple is part of the Nightshade (Solanaceae) family, and like many other Nightshades ot is very poisonous and farmers don't like to have it in their fields. But it is not easy to get rid of it.
The big flowers open only in the daytime. They are trumpet-shaped with pointed leaves, very decorative.
