Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria

Scientific Name: Scabiosa columbaria (Dipsacaceae).


English Name: Small Scabious (Teazel family).


French Name: La Scabieuse colombaire (='the Columbarium scabious').

5 Key Characters:

• upper leaves stalkless but divided into fine lobes.
• individual florets have 5 unequal lobes. 
• fine slender plant.
• rosette leaves long-stalked with teeth.
• outer florets much larger than ones in the middle.
  

Lookalikes: Field Scabious Knautia arvensis, which is altogether coarser and more robust, with bigger flower heads and florets with 4 unequal lobes.


Habitat: Calcareous grasslands.


Flowering Period: July-August-September.


Status: Localised. Nowhere near as abundant as Field Scabious.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

The upper leaves have linear lobes, including tip leaflet.