"humble wayside flower"

Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis; also known as red pimpernel, red chickweed, poorman's barometer, poor man's weather-glass,^[1]shepherd's weather glass or shepherd's clock) is a low-growing annual plant. The native range of the species is Europe and Western Asia and North Africa.^[2] The species has been distributed widely by humans, either deliberately as an ornamental flower or accidentally.^[3]

This common European plant is generally considered a weed and is an indicator of light soils, though it grows opportunistically in clayey soils as well. The origin of the name pimpernelcomes from pympernele [1400–50]; late Middle English, derived from Middle French pimprenelle, Old French piprenelle; Vulgar Latin *piperīnella= Latin piper pepper + -īn- -ine + -ella diminutive suffix.