Burke: Centaurea cyanus

	Centaurea cyanus
	bachelor's button, garden cornflower
Habit	Annual or winter-annual, 2-12 dm. tall.
Leaves	Leaves narrow, often linear, mostly entire, or the lower ones sometimes shallowly toothed or lobed, up to 13 cm. long and 1 cm. wide, excluding the lobes.
Flowers	Heads terminating the branches; involucre 11-16 mm. high, its bracts with a narrow, dark lacerate fringe near the tip; flowers usually blue, but may be white, pink, or purple, the marginal ones with enlarged, irregular corollas; pappus bristles 2-3 mm. long; receptacle densely bristly.

	Centaurea cyanus
Flowering time	May-October
Habitat	Roadsides, fields, ditches, meadows, wastelots, and other disturbed open areas at low elevations.
Distribution	Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Atlantic Coast. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Introduced from the Mediterranean region
Conservation status	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	C. benedicta, C. calcitrapa, C. diffusa, C. ×gerstlaueri, C. iberica, C. jacea, C. macrocephala, C. melitensis, C. montana, C. nigra, C. nigrescens, C. solstitialis, C. stoebe, C. trichocephala, C. ×varnensis
Web links	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Centaurea cyanus

bachelor's button, garden cornflower

Habit

Annual or winter-annual, 2-12 dm. tall.

Leaves

Leaves narrow, often linear, mostly entire, or the lower ones sometimes shallowly toothed or lobed, up to 13 cm. long and 1 cm. wide, excluding the lobes.

Flowers

Heads terminating the branches;

involucre 11-16 mm. high, its bracts with a narrow, dark lacerate fringe near the tip;

flowers usually blue, but may be white, pink, or purple, the marginal ones with enlarged, irregular corollas;

pappus bristles 2-3 mm. long;

receptacle densely bristly.