The small scabious (Scabiosa columbaria), with it’s delightful pin cushion flower head, is a perennial of chalk and limestone grassland. It is a mass of lilac-blue flowers, in round heads on long stalks. Being of a dry and sunny disposition it is an ideal plant for extensive, green roofs and brown roofs.
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As they flower in late summer and early autumn they are an important nectar source for bees and butterflies on a green roof.One notably member of the Lepidotera often seen feeding on Small Scabious is the Six-spotted Burnett moth. The plant is also one of the food plants for the relatively common Grey Pug Moth.
Ideally it is best to establish Small Scabious on a green roof in both plug and seed form.
It is commonly found on green roofs in Switzerland and Germany, which have been sown with native central European calcareous seed mixes and is therefore suited to extensive green roofs in the UK. It can just about survive in 80mm of a wildflower substrate but grows best in 100 -150mm.
The flower in the first photograph looks like small scabious, but the other pictures are of thrift – probably Armeria maritima.
[...] finally the Scabious a rather harsh name for such a beautiful plant. A real pleasure to see on a green roof and one to [...]