Field Scabious - Knautia arvensis

Medium to tall, hairy plant, often stoloniferous, with a basal leaf rosette. Stems usually with purple spots. Leaves pinnately lobed, the lower stalked the upper sometimes undivided. Flowers bluish lilac or mauve.

Devil's bit Scabious and Small Scabious

Corolla is 4-lobed (Small Scabious is 5-lobed) and the outer flowers are much longer than inner.  Lower leaves simple/crenate; upper leaves pinnate, with intermediates between. 

A photograph of the flower and upper/lower leaves

Meadows and hedgebanks.

July to September.

Perennial or biennial.

Fairly frequent throughout Britain.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland though possibly declining. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 62 of the 617 tetrads.