Purple knapweed
Centaurea pullata
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The spineless knapweed with large purple or pink flowers, opening early in fallow land and dehesas and among the first patches of spring colour in the south.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland · Montado
Also known asdark knapweed
How to tell it
A low plant, often with a rosette of cut leaves nearly flat on the ground. Large heads, two to four centimetres, with purple or deep pink florets, the outer ones larger and spreading like rays. The bracts end in a fringe of dark teeth, without a stiff spine. It does not prick.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. It serves as a useful counterexample: not every knapweed pricks, and the difference between a head with a fringe of teeth and one with a stiff spine is what separates walking through from going around.