Common Knapweed

Look out for common knapweed, one of our later flowering plants with occasional flowerheads still visible. Each deep reddish-purple compact flower with a swollen base of blackish bracts is solitary or in branched clusters. It resembles a thistle without any prickles. Grey-green simple lanceolate leaves grow alternatively up a stiff stem. Earlier it was an important source of nectar for butterflies such as peacock and meadow brown. Many flowerheads have now turned into black seedheads which remain on their hard branched stems and last throughout the winter, It can grows to a height of one metre. Common knapweed nó mínscoth i nGaeilge is part of our native Irish biodiversity.