This is a late summer flower which looks distinctly different from Scabiosa colombaria (Small Scabious) and Knautia arvensis (Field Scabious) with which it might possibly be confused. It tends to be a deeper blue and the flower stays quite compact on longish stalks. I tend to find it in wet places but Stace says it will grow in acid or basic grasslands, wet or dry.
There are quite a few unlikely sounding explanationsfor the English name amongst which is that the Devil used to act through the root of this plant so the Virgin Mary stopped him. In his anger the devil bit off the root which explains why the root stock of S. pratensis ends so abruptly.
Great Orme 23rd August 2001
Latin Index English Index Home Page
Added on December 7th 2004