Guess that plant

[chefgage]

Was out for a walk last night and saw a big field with this growing in it. Anybody know what it is?

[mothhawk]

Those are the seed pods of oil seed rape

[andy_j]

That would've been my first guess too

[chefgage]

Do they have an early crop of rapeseed then because I am sure i have seen fields full of rapeseed a bit ealier in the year. Unless the farmer was just late sowing in this particular field

[mothhawk]

Rape is sown in August/September. It starts to flower end of April, beginning of May time the following year, but like wheat and barley, once the flowers have gone the seeds need to grow and ripen. Here in Leicestershire farmers generally start combining rape mid-July, after the barley but before the wheat.

If you walk past a field of ripening rape seed, particularly on a dry hot day, you can often hear a faint crackling sound. That's the sound of the seed pods popping open and scattering their seeds.