Flower ID

[Tormentil]

Can someone ID this please?

[Lance Morgan]

Looks like diffuse knapweed

[earthdragon64]

I'm not entirely sure without the leaves, but a white form of Common Knapweed would be my best guess. One for the Albino flower thread when the ID is confirmed.

[metalfish]

I'd say it's a white Greater knapweed, the green scaly bit (sorry I don't know the technical term) is wide like the Greater knapweed, Common knapweed and Diffuse knapweed have a more narrow & longer green scaly green bit.

This white version did used to crop up on the wildflower farm where I was working- we used to have to make sure we didn't pick the seed from these rogue white ones when hand-picking the seed crop.

[Tormentil]

Sorry, don't have a pic of the leaves. Does this help ?

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi Ben,

The brown tips to the involucre bracts (The scaly bits making up the round lump below the florets) are triangular in shape as opposed to horesshoe shped.

That should make this Centaurea nigra (Common Knapweed - albeit the white form), as opposed to Centaurea scabiosa (Greatre Knapweed).

EDIT - But hang on - I've just read something contradictory. I'll have to get deeper into the books

Regards
Mike.

EDIT 2 - Going by the very long teeth length on the bracts, I'll stick with my original best guess. Common Knapweed (although the open flower in the first pic does look quite Rayed ).

Pity you don't have any leaf info as that would clinch it - Can you recall if the leaves were simple lanceolate, or if they were lobed/pinnate (similar to a Dandelion) ?

[Tormentil]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Lad

Pity you don't have any leaf info as that would clinch it - Can you recall if the leaves were simple lanceolate, or if they were lobed/pinnate (similar to a Dandelion) ?

When I saw it I just thought,"Oooh, a white knapweed". Never gave a thought to checking the leaves, sorry.