Common Name: succisella
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Zone: 5 to 8
Height: 2.00 to 2.50 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: July to September
Bloom Description: White
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium to wet
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Tolerate: Erosion, Wet Soil
Culture
Easily grown in average, moist to wet, moderately fertile, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Will thrive in boggy conditions. Do not allow soils to dry out.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Succisella inflexa, sometimes commonly called devil’s bit, is an upright herbaceous perennial that features globular, Knautia-like, white flowerheads from July to September atop naked stems rising to 30” tall over a spreading clump of long, narrow, green leaves. Each flower head resembles a pin cushion subtended by a ring of bristly involucre bracts. This plant is native to moist to sometimes wet fields, meadows, forest clearings and waste places in Europe, but has escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of North America from Quebec and Ontario south to Michigan and Pennsylvania. Genus name is a diminutive of the genus Succisa which was once included in the closely related genus Scabiosa. Synonymous with Scabiosa inflexa.
Genus name comes from the Greek word succise meaning cut off in reference to the plant roots which appear to be cut off at their ends.
Specific epithet comes from the Latin word inflexus meaning bent inward.
‘Frosted Pearls’ flowers emerge light pink turning white with a slight tinge of blue as they mature.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Not commonly cultivated. Mixes well with ornamental grasses and large-leaved hostas. Good for massing in moist informal areas.