Northeastern scabious is a purple-blue pincushion flower of dry steppes and slopes in northeastern Asia, and the national flower of Mongolia. It doesn't grow wild in the United States.
Appearance
- Growth form
- An herb about 1–3 ft (30–90 cm) tall. It is usually described as a biennial, though some sources call it a perennial.
- Flowers
- Many tiny flowers pack into one rounded head. The outer flowers are larger with five lobes, giving the head a frilly edge, while the inner ones are small tubes.
- Flowering time
- Summer into early fall (July–September in Korea).
Look-alikes
Sweet scabiousSixalix atropurpurea
Sweet scabious, the common garden pincushion flower, has red to deep purple heads. Northeastern scabious is a paler purple-blue.
Why they get mixed upBoth have the same pincushion-like flower heads, and sweet scabious has escaped into grasslands in California.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Steppes
- Dry slopes
- Dunes
- Range
- Southern Siberia, Mongolia, northern and east-central China, and Korea. It isn't native to North America.
- Preferred conditions
- Dry, open ground at about 1,000–5,200 ft (300–1,600 m).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Mongolians call it ber tseseg, and its design appears on the silver plates of traditional Mongolian saddles.
More species to explore
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