Phyteuma orbiculare Round-headed Rampion
This plant is supposed only to grow between heights of 5,000 feet and 8,500 feet in some southern regions of the Alps but it is also a rare native in the chalk lowlands of southern Britain. Perhaps this lends support to the idea that our British plant is a separate segregate or sub species: ssp tenerum, for even allowing for a more northerly latitude in Britain, at a starting height of 5,000 feet it would scarcely flower at the summit of a little hillock called Ben Nevis.
P. orbiculare can be blue, violet or rarely white in colour.
LHS: by path from Pontresina station 7th July 2010 RHS Val de Fain, Engadine, Switzerland 6th July 2010
Added on April 5th 2011