Botanical name: Knautia aventis     
Folk names: Bachelor’s buttons, gypsy rose

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: High quality nectar for bees, and butterflies including the comma, small tortoiseshell, large white, small white. Highly nutritious pollen, especially helpful for bee larvae. Supports a wide range of pollinators including beetles and hoverflies. A top draw in my meadow planter for bumblebees and solitary bees. Secondary caterpillar food plant of the rare marsh fritillary butterfly in specific conservation areas and of moths including lime speck pug and shaded pug moths. Finches eat its seed although I haven’t seen this yet!

Flowers: June to early October

Decorative merit: ‘Pinhead’ flowerheads filled with up to fifty tiny, soft mauve flowers. Stamens stick out prominently when mature but whither before the stigmas mature to avoid self-pollination. Outer flowers are larger than those in the centre. Wiry plant with two or three bare and slightly branched stems. Dull green, hairy leaves at the base which persist throughout winter, with leaves becoming more divided further up the stem. 25cm to 1m high. I’ve had a field scabious flowering in the depths of winter!

Where: Sun or tolerates part-shade. Long stems make it suitable for middle of borders, mini meadows and verges.

Folklore: Used, historically, as a medicinal herb for skin conditions. Its Westcountry common name of ‘bachelor’s buttons’ relates to the practice of naming buds after eligible suitors and making a choice based on which formed the best flower.

Honeysuckle family relative of devilsbit scabious and teasel.

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank