Field Scabious Knautia arvensis

Scientific Name: Knautia arvensis. Dipsacaceae.

English Name: Field Scabious.

French Name: La Knautie des champs (='field knautia'); la Scabieuse des champs (='field scabious'); la Langue-de-vache (='cow's tongue'); l'Oreille d'âne (='ass' ear'); l'Oreille de lièvre (='hare's ear').

5 Key Characters:

•  Robust and roughly hairy.
•  Basal leaves unlobed, but often blunt toothed.
• Stem leaves deeply divided, with coarse, stiff segments and rounded tip.
• Stalks tough and coarse.
• Individual flowers have 4 unequal lobes.

Lookalikes: Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria, which is smaller and more slender, with finely divided stem leaves and 5 lobed flowers. Beware, as they can be growing together in some places. Field Scabious is more widely distributed and more abundant.

 Habitat: Dry grassland, hedgerows, roadsides.

Flowering Period: July-August-September.  

Status: Very common.  

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

The stiff, coarsely divided stem leaves, July.