PlantFiles: Scarlet Pimpernel, Pimpernel, Adders Eyes
Anagallis arvensis

This is one of the prettiest, most welcome little flowers I know of. I discovered it growing on a neighboring property many years ago and dug it up and put it in my garden. It stayed in the same spot (or its seedlings, perhaps) for several years. It never reseeded anywhere else, so invasive is the last word I have for it, and since I didn't have nearly enough in my garden, I would say "evasive" is more like it.

This plant is pretty for a weed; however, it is rampant in my garden and it is poisonous if ingested by animals.

For a 'weed' -- it's very lovely. Comes up unbidden. If unwelcome -- uproots easily enough. The blooms' coloring is quite attractive...even enviable.

Cute little flowers for a weed & has spots on the undersides of the leaves. Not too invasive so I leave a few to bloom around the garden. It is a few zones hardier than listed

Pops up everywhere! Good thing it's easy to pull out.

Scarlet Pimpernel, Pimpernel, Adders Eyes (Anagallis arvensis) also is naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada and Greenland.

Scarlet Pimpernel, Pimpernel, Adders Eyes, Anagallis arvensis ia naturalized in Texas and other States.

I've had this coming up in a small area of my garden for a few years now. I don't find it invasive at all....It just stays and reseeds in the same spot every year growing between the other plants. Little orange/red flowers with a bluish eye.
I hope it comes up again this year!

One or two are great, but it's very invasive. Am forever pulling it.

In climates where it is not hardy, scarlet pimpernel reliably reseeds to become a permanent member of the garden. Seeds sprout without assistance, and are easily thinned.

A prostrate, variable annual from Europe but widely naturalised across the Northern Hemishpere.

Has ovate or lanceolate, mid green leaves on prostrate stems. Bears 5 petalled, solitary flowers which are normally a brick/orange red but can be blue, white or a pinkish shade. It may also have a purple, pink or blue eye.

Flowers anywhere between March-October and for many months at a time. They close on rainy days and dull days or at 2pm

Likes a moist, well drained soil in full sun but will tolerate a little shade. Being small it prefers not to have much in the way of taller competition. It grows well in a container or as part of a sunny rock garden.

It was considered an anti-witchcraft plant and was used to remove splinters put in the skin by witches, although why anyone stood long enough to allow witches to do such a thing is beyond me!

This unassuming little plant was also used in the treatment of, eye diseases, epilepsy, depression and other mental problems, toothache, staunch blood, kidney stones and the plague (what plant wasn't used to treat plagues!). You name it and this tiny plant has been used at one time to cure it.

It is still used by professionals (this is not a plant to take without trained professional advice!) in the treatment of kidney stones, epilepsy and jaundice. It has proved helpful in the treatment of depression and other mental illnesses and when I look at the little flower smiling at the sun I have to say it lifts my spirits too.