Common name:
Devil's-bit scabious
Family:
Scientific name:
Succisa pratensis
Main flower color:
Range:
All of the UK
Height:
Up to 80 cm
Habitat:
Damp grassland and woodland, marshes, fens
Flowers:
In small, dense, hemispherical clusters up to 2.5 cm in diameter. Flowers, all equal in size, have a tubular corolla (purple to pale pink) opening to four small lobes, with a protruding pistil, and a bristle-lobed calyx. Each flower is subtended by a short green bract, while at the base of the cluster are a ring of longer bracts, all covered in white hairs, as is the stem. Flowers are usually solitary but may occasionally form as small clusters
Leaves:
Opposite, sparsely hairy, undivided, oblanceolate around the base becoming narrower up the stem
Season:
June to October
Rarity:
★★★★★
