Plant from Picos.

[Giles]

A friend saw this in N. Spain a month or two ago.
I can't work out what it is....   ....please help......

[Maggi Young]

I have a feeling that when we find out what this is we're going to feel daft that we didn't know it.....
 

The foliage doesn't seem to "match" the flowers spike, does it?
edit : I mean the foliage sems to belong to a Cirsium or similar......

[DaveM]

I too was thinking of an apparent mismatch.... the rosette looks a bit like a pedicularis, but that doesn't fit the branching flower spike, a single head of which looks a bit like Digitalis??  Hmmmm.

[Matt T]

I'd say that it's white mignonette, Reseda alba:
http://www.maltawildplants.com/RESD/Reseda_alba.php

[David Sellars]

Funnily enough I took a photo in early June of the exact same plant as you can see by the background rocks.

The second photo is a close-up of the flower and with the orange anthers and the height nearly 2 m,  I had concluded that it was probably Reseda suffruticosa.  Either way according to "Flowers of Southwest Europe" by Polunin and Smythies, it would seem that it would be rare in the Picos as northern Spain is not indicated as a location.
Reseda alba, Portugal and Med. region. 
Reseda suffruticosa, North Portugal, South, South Central and East Spain.

[Susann]

Wow, I wish I had spotted that one, spending so much time in Picos last year. I almost feel ashamed missing it, but am pleased by reading it is supposed to be very rare. Now I have yet another reason to go back...

[Giles]

 Thankyou everybody.

[annew]

What fantastic flowers on that spike with that great cluster of coral-coloured stamens

[Maggi Young]

Great result ( as usual ) from the forumists.  What must the odds be on two people photographing the self-same plant?