Small Scabious

Named as a result of a medieval brainwave

Small scabious flowers from July to September with lilac-blue, sometimes white, flowers that are arranged in a head of about 3.5 cm wide and have radiant ray florets. Under these heads are situated a ring of small, linear to lanceolate leaves arranged in a single row. These leaves are attached at the base and together form an open, star-shaped structure when viewed from below. The lowermost leaves are lyre-shaped to lyre-devided with a large ovate lobe. The other leaves are more finely divided.

The genus name Scabiosa originates from medieval thinking as the ripe fruit case has scabs just like the skin of someone with scabies. According to the teachings of the time, appearance was indicative of medicinal use (e.g. flowers with an eye in the illustration would be effective against eye infections) and so scabious was as a treatment for scabies. It was also used, probably unsuccessfully, for the plague, dropsy and all kinds of skin diseases. Columbaria means ‘dove coloured’. Cultivars of the small scabious are growing in many ornamental gardens.

Ecology and habitat

In the wild, small scabious prefers a sunny habitat on usually open, at most slightly damp sites, with relatively nutrient-rich, little fertilised and preferably calcareous soils (such as marl, lime, clay) and sometimes on stony sites. It is rare in Zuid-Limburg and the main riverine areas in the Netherlands, in chalk grassland, river dyke grassland, verges, along (old) railway lines and in places where there have been excavations such as lime quarries. The species is, with the exception of the north, distributed across Europe and southwest Asia. A few moths, such as Phyllonorycter scabiosella, have become specialist feeders on the small scabious.

Threat

The small scabious has undergone a rapid decline. It has disappeared from the Limburgse Maasdal. The species cannot establish itself in a dense turf and is threatened, like so many other species, because it is unable to tolerate fertilisation of the land. The cemetery at Bergklooster in Zwolle, situated on a river dune along the Overijssel Vecht, contains most probably the largest area of small scabious in the Netherlands.