Latin name: Centaurea cyanus
Common name: Cornflower
Other names: Batchelor’s buttons, blaver, blue poppy, break-your-spectacles, corn-blinks, happy skies, hurtsickle, ragged sailor, witches’ bells
How to spot it and where to find it: An upright annual of bright, unfussy beauty, the cobalt-blue cornflower was once common in Britain’s cornfields, but it has declined rapidly in the past 60 years. Meadows full of cornflowers were last seen between the World Wars. It flowers from June to August.
Interesting facts: So beautiful is the cornflower that its name is a recognised shade of blue. The most valuable sapphires are a medium-dark violet blue, called cornflower blue. Cornflowers were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt and, despite being more than 3,000 years old, they retained their colour. The cornflower has had many medical uses.…
