Legousia pentagonia - Venus's Looking Glass

The Five-stamen Legousia, known by its scientific name Legousia pentagonia, is a dazzling annual native to the Mediterranean basin. In one season, it develops tufts of bright green foliage, which are covered, during the summer, with open cup-shaped flowers. These flowers display shades of blue infused with purple, marked by several nuances of blue and white, very bright. This robust plant is drought-resistant, making it ideal for rockeries or borders. Direct sowing in the sun in well-drained soil, including limestone and poor soil.

The five-stamen legousia is an herbaceous annual plant of the campanula family, originating from Mediterranean regions, naturalized in Spain, spontaneous in Thrace, Turkey, Crete, Rhodes, up to the Caucasus and Western Asia. In France, it is found in small stations near Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, growing near cereal crops, especially on limestone soil. It forms a bushy clump of 25 cm in all directions, composed of stiff stems, simple or branching at the top, covered with bright green and rough foliage. The leaves are ovate, slightly undulate, entire, villous to bristly or glabrescent. The flowers appear from June to August, grouped in terminal panicles. They have the shape of flared cups 2 to 3 cm in diameter, formed by 5 petals whose colour is an iridescent violet-blue, around a white heart. The flowering is followed by the formation of capsules containing the seeds.

The Legousia pentagonia, ideal for borders, rockeries, sunny planters, can also be used in hanging baskets, elegantly cascading down. This plant is one of those simple, yet striking, flowers capable of transforming a space in just one season. It pairs perfectly with love-in-a-mist, Californian poppies, as well as flax, whether perennial or annual. These combinations are particularly suitable for natural areas or flowering meadows, for a lively and colourful display.