Romaldkirk, Teesdale: One common name for this plant is hardheads and thanks to picture-winged fly larvae some heads are harder than others
When I walked this stretch of the Tees Valley railway path last summer, the purple “shaving brush” flowers of common knapweed, Centaurea nigra, swarmed with bees, butterflies and hoverflies. It’s an ecologically important element of our native flora, so familiar that over 50 local names have been recorded for it, from iron knobs (Cheshire) to lady’s cushion (Kent). It’s also a useful plant for a wildlife-friendly garden. So, on a bitterly cold February day, I went back to collect seeds.
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