Devil's-bit scabious

A beautiful and delicate perennial growing wild in wet meadows and pastures. In summer, it blooms with magical spherical flowers of blue-violet color. It attracts bees, hoverflies, and rare butterfly species. Its peculiar name is tied to a legend according to which the devil, in anger over the protective power of this herb, bit off its rhizome. The rhizomes indeed have a peculiar shape, and the naming in connection with the devil appears in other European languages as well.