Family: Dipsacaceae Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria Flowering time: July - September. Perennial Can be locally frequent on calcareous grasslands. Scarce in Scotland, absent from Ireland A slender, erect plant with branched stems and stalked, irregularly lobed basal leaves. The stem leaves are deeply-pinnate with very narrow lobes. Bluish-violet flowerheads, the outer florets much larger than the inner. Corollas with five un-equal lobes. Height 15-70cm Similar: Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis.

   


Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria
The Purbecks, Dorset. June 2006 and October 2012