Larval food plant Field scabious and Historical Horticultural variety diversions

[PhilBJohnson]

While considering locations where Marsh Fritillary populations existed using Field scabious as a larval food plant, on calcarious geology, rather than Damp meadow scabious elsewhere, small differences in individual larval food plant populations, might have been noted.
In comparison with similar species, a Damp meadow scabious (Succisa pratensis) tended to keep more perennial winter leaves in clump form than a noted Field scabious. That might have advantaged over-wintering caterpillars.
For the sake of Marsh Fritillary in different landscapes and also Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth numbers (both used scabious), there might have been a taller, more leafy variety of Field scabious that helped evolve those two species slowly, but became less seed propagated at about the same time as historically early horticultural practices, developed less naturally cross pollinated scabious species varieties with "greater flowers" and possibly "lesser leaves"
A small scabious for example (shorter in height) might have been preferred in a garden for a flower abundance, where it was less tied up for tidy reasoning, rather than naturally competing with tall summer field grasses, at that height.