'Kill your dog, save a flower'

Germaine Greer says that dog owners should kill their pets if they want to save the English Bluebell. File photo / NZ Herald

Outspoken Australian feminist Germaine Greer has launched a stinging attack on domestic dogs, blaming them for the ruination of a protected perennial flower, the English bluebell.

Addressing Britain's Hay Festival on Thursday, the 72-year-old Melbourne-born academic who owns a patch of land covered in the plant that flowers in spring, pointed the finger at toxic dog poo for the plant's scarcity.

"If you love your bluebells, kill your dog," said Greer dramatically, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph website.

She blamed the phosphorous in dog faeces for changing the chemical environment and killing off fungi, essential for the bluebell's survival.

"At the risk of making you all very cross, may I suggest that it is time the British gave up on their endless love affair with the dog," Greer said.

She also suggested restricting human access to bluebell woodlands.

"The real threat to our bluebells, she said, "is the use we make of the woodlands - people running through them, taking photos of each other standing on trampled bluebells."

-AAP