1. To me hunger-weed was corn spurrey. My father used it as … [an indicator] to which parts of our vegetable garden, on very sandy soil where Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire join, needed dunging. He said it was so called because on such soils it was used as a crop by the desperate [Addlestone, Surrey, September 1997].

2. A profusion of meldi (corn spurrey) is a sign that more manure needs to be applied [to the soil] [Lerwick, Shetland, March 1994].

Images: main, Tooting Common, London Borough of Wandsworth, July 2014; inset, Chaldon, Surrey, August 2015.