Scientific name: Jasione montana L.
Common name: Sheep's Bit, Sheep's Scabious
Description
Habit: Herbaceous biennial, to 50 cm high.
Stems: Suberect; upper part of flowering stems leafy and unbranched, lower part branched.
Leaves: Alternate, with stipules, hairy, oblong to lanceolate, undulate; basal leaves forming a rosette.
Flowers: Blue, numerous in a terminal head 1-2 cm across; flower-head surrounded by an involucre of toothed green bracts; individual flowers stalked; calyx teeth narrow; corolla actinomorphic, formed of 5 deeply lobed, fused petals; stigmas 2, ovary inferior.
Fruits: A many seeded capsule.
Habitat: Banks, sea-cliffs, walls, rocks, heathy grounds.
Distribution: Absent from limestone, frequent and locally abundant elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No