Centaurea melitensis |
Centaurea montana |
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croix de malte, Maltese knapweed, Maltese star thistle or centaury, Maltese star-thistle, Napa thistle, tocalote |
Bachelor's button, centaurée des montagnes, montane starthistle, mountain bluet, mountain bluet knapweed, mountain cornflower, mountain cornflower or bluet, mountain knapweed, perennial cornflower |
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Habit | Annuals, 10–100 cm, herbage loosely gray-tomentose and villous with jointed multicellular hairs, sometimes minutely scabrous, minutely resin-gland-dotted. | Perennials, 25–80 cm, from rhizomes or stolons. |
Stems | 1–few, few–many branched distally. |
1–several, erect, simple or sparingly branched, villous with septate hairs and thinly arachnoid-tomentose with long, simple hairs. |
Leaves | basal and proximal cauline petiolate or tapering to base, usually absent at anthesis, blades oblong to oblanceolate, 2–15 cm, margins entire to dentate or pinnately lobed; cauline long-decurrent, blades linear to oblong or oblanceolate, 1–5 cm, entire or dentate. |
thinly villous and ± tomentose, glabrate; proximal leaves winged-petiolate, blades 10–30 cm, margins entire or remotely dentate to pinnately lobed; mid and distal leaves sessile, blades decurrent, ovate to oblong or lanceolate, entire or remotely denticulate. |
Involucres | ovoid, 10–15 mm, loosely cobwebby-tomentose or becoming glabrous. |
ovoid to ± campanulate, 20–25 mm. |
Florets | many; corollas yellow, those of sterile florets 10–12 mm, slender, inconspicuous, those of fertile florets 10–12 mm. |
35–60+; sterile florets 10–20, corollas blue (white, purple, or pink), 2.5–4.5 cm, corolla tube elongate. |
Disc florets | 25–40+; corollas purple, ca. 20 mm; anthers dark blue-purple. |
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Inner phyllaries | appendages entire, acute or spine-tipped. |
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Heads | disciform, 1–few at branch tips, borne singly or in open leafy corymbiform arrays, sometimes clustered in distal axils, sessile or pedunculate. |
radiant, borne singly or in few-headed corymbiform arrays; (peduncles to 7 cm). |
Cypselae | dull white or light brown, ca. 2.5 mm, finely hairy; pappi of many white, unequal, stiff bristles 2.5–3 mm. |
± brown, 5–6 mm, sericeous; pappi of bristles 0.5–1.5 mm. |
Principal | phyllaries: bodies ± stramineous, ovate, appendages purplish, spiny-fringed at base, each tipped by slender spine 5–10 mm. |
phyllaries: bodies greenish, ovate to lanceolate, scarious-margined, appendages appressed, brown to black, unarmed, decurrent on phyllary margins, pectinate-fringed, puberulent; innermost phyllaries sometimes unappendaged. |
2n | = 24. |
= 24 (Germany), 40 (Russia), 44 (France). |
Centaurea melitensis |
Centaurea montana |
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Phenology | Flowering mostly spring–summer (Apr–Jul). | Flowering summer (Jun–Aug). |
Habitat | Roadsides, fields, pine-oak woodlands, chaparral, agricultural areas | Escaped from cultivation, roadsides, woodlands, sagebrush scrub |
Elevation | 0–1500 m (0–4900 ft) | 0–1400 m (0–4600 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; GA; ID; IL; MA; MO; MS; NJ; NM; NV; OR; PA; TX; UT; WA; WI; BC; Mexico (Baja California); Europe; Asia; Africa [Widely introduced]
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AK; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; NH; NY; OR; PA; UT; WA; WI; BC; NB; NF; ON; QC; SPM; Europe [Introduced in North America]
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Discussion | Centaurea melitensis is native to the Mediterranean region. It is listed as a noxious weed in New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Centaurea montana is a very handsome plant, native to the mountains of Europe, now widely cultivated as an ornamental. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 193. | FNA vol. 19, p. 185. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Centaurea | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Centaurea |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 917. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 911. (1753) |
Web links |
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