A poll to find a floral emblem for Sussex has been marred by an unlikely vote-fixing row.

The round-headed rampion romped home as the plant most affectionately associated with the county - even though many people have never even heard of it.

PlantLife International launched its County Flowers campaign in 2002 to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The organisation asked people in counties across England to vote for their best-loved native blooms.

Sussex voted overwhelmingly for the English bluebell in the first round of the survey but the flower was disqualified after organisers ruled the poll had been rigged.

They became suspicious about the vast number of votes for the flower and decided there must have been a local fixing campaign to drum up support.

The bluebell was removed from the list of options and plant-lovers in Sussex were left to choose between the birdsfoot trefoil and the unloved, untidy and uncommon rampion.

Bemused experts said yesterday the bluebell should not have been removed in the final round of voting.

Many admitted knowing nothing about the rampion.

Lee Bishop, chairman of the Wivelsfield Flower Club, said: "I've lived in the county all my life and I know about flowers but I don't know much about this round-headed whatever.

"I wouldn't even know where to find it.

"The bluebell is very prolific in Sussex and we have some of the most beautiful bluebell woods in the country."

Audrey Cumming, chairwoman of Lindfield Flower Club, said: "It isn't one I know.

"There is more to Sussex than downland, which you only get on the coast. We have a lot of woodland in the north."

The rampion, dubbed the Pride of Sussex, is a native of chalk grasslands, which make up four per cent of the Sussex Downs.

It has violet flowers in rounded, untidy heads from June to August.

It is already associated with Sussex as the symbol for the Society of Sussex Downsmen and is more prolific in the county than elsewhere but it is still fairly rare.

The rampion was just one of several controversial winners in the poll.

The harebell beat Yorkshire's traditional emblem, the white rose, into second place, while voters in Newcastle upon Tyne chose the monkey flower, which is not even native to the area.