Purple cone flowers are I think native to North America, they were the first thing I thought of, until I read where you saw them. They look similar to cone flower seed heads, but not quite the same to me, more cup shaped than cone flowers.
If you pull off all the brown bits, you should be left with a cone shape in the middle - a bit like a strawberry hull. That's if it is Echinacea, but I agree that it's an unlikely place to find them.
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Purple cone flowers are I think native to North America, they were the first thing I thought of, until I read where you saw them. They look similar to cone flower seed heads, but not quite the same to me, more cup shaped than cone flowers.
Love to know what they.
I found these with the help of Google. The title read -
The sharp spiky seed heads of Purple Coneflower are very thistle-like"
Don't Echinacea seed heads go blacker than that though? At least mine are
They're more cone-shaped than Forester's pic but getting closer.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Looks a bit like scabious seedheads when the papery bits have blown away?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I doubt if it is pansyface.
It will be a relative that grows here.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Was it smoking a big cigar and wearing a baseball cap?
In the sticks near Peterborough
If you pull off all the brown bits, you should be left with a cone shape in the middle - a bit like a strawberry hull. That's if it is Echinacea, but I agree that it's an unlikely place to find them.
I don't suppose it could possibly be a Burdock??