Devil's-Bit Scabious

Devil's-bit scabious is a perennial wildflower of the honeysuckle family, once placed with the teasels. It is common across the British Isles and western and central Europe and reaches east into central Asia, on heaths, damp unimproved grassland and chalk or limestone turf, always on poor soils; it has been brought to eastern North America. It can top a metre but is often far smaller. A rosette of lance-shaped leaves, sometimes blotched with purple, sends up slender stems ending in tight, domed heads of thirty to fifty bluish-violet flowers, now and then pink or white, much visited by hoverflies and fed on by the caterpillars of the marsh fritillary. Its name comes from the root, which ends abruptly as though bitten off: English belief held that the devil, angered by how many ills it cured, bit the end away. It was used against scabies and, says Kynes, in potions to undo the evil eye and illness sent by magic. Picking the flowers was thought in parts of England to call up the devil, Irish cows that grazed it were said to give creamy milk, and across Europe its flowers or leaves were worn against every kind of evil. Cunningham advises wearing it round the neck to drive off evil spirits and protect the wearer, and uses it to attract women and to bring luck.