Small Scabious
Scabiosa columbaria L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 99 cm
- wide
- 51 cm
Caprifoliaceae
Also called Dove pincushions, Morning Bride, Scabiosa, Wild Scabiosa, Lesser scabious
Formerly Asterocephalus columbaria, Columbaria vulgaris, Succisa columbaria
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Europe to Iran and Arabian Pen., NW. Africa, Trop. African Mts.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from RHS, one source
- Height
- 99 cmRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 0.5–1 m; Wikipedia 1–1 m
- Spread
- 51 cmRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 0.1–0.5 m; Wikipedia 0.5–0.5 m
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS, one source
- Flowers
- BlueRead from RHS and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS blue, purple; Wikipedia blue, violet
- Coldest it survives
- -10 °C (USDA zone 8a)Read from RHS, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- French
- Scabieuse colombaire, colombaire
- German
- Tauben-Skabiose, Tauben-Grindkraut, Taubenskabiose
- Czech
- hlaváč fialový
- Danish
- Dueskabiose, Due-Skabiose
- Norwegian Bokmål
- bakkeknapp, Bakkeknapp
- Russian
- Скабиоза голубиная
- Japanese
- セイヨウイトバマツムシソウ
- Finnish
- kivikkotörmäkukka, Eteläntörmäkukka, Ketotörmäkukka
- Lithuanian
- Balandinė žvaigždūnė
- Italian
- Vedovina selvatica
- Chinese (China)
- 西洋山萝卜
- Catalan
- escabiosa
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Scabiosa columbaria (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.