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Centaurea cyanus L.  
Family: Asteraceae
Garden Cornflower
[Leucacantha cyanus (L.) Nieuwl. & Lunell]
Centaurea cyanus image
William Thomas
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David J. Keil, Jörg Ochsmann in Flora of North America (vol. 19, 20 and 21)
Annuals, 20-100 cm. Stems usually 1, erect, ± openly branched distally, loosely tomentose. Leaves ± loosely gray-tomentose; basal leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 3-10 cm, margins entire or with remote linear lobes, apices acute; cauline linear, usually not much smaller except among heads, usually entire. Heads radiant, in open, rounded or ± flat-topped cymiform arrays, pedunculate. Involucres campanulate, 12-16 mm. Phyllaries: bodies green, ovate (outer) to oblong (inner), tomentose or becoming glabrous, margins and erect appendages white to dark brown or black, scarious, fringed with slender teeth ± 1 mm. Florets 25-35; corollas blue (white to purple), those of sterile florets raylike, enlarged, 20-25 mm, those of fertile florets 10-15 mm. Cypselae stramineous or pale blue, 4-5 mm, finely hairy; pappi of many unequal stiff bristles, 2-4 mm. 2n = 24 (Russia). Flowering spring-summer (May-Sep). Grasslands, woodlands, forests, roadsides, other disturbed sites; 50-2400 m; introduced; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.). N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; s Europe. Centaurea cyanus is a commonly cultivated garden ornamental. Its cypselae are often included in wildflower seed mixes and it naturalizes readily in many areas.

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Annual or winter-annual 2-12 dm, usually loosely white-tomentose when young, the lower lf-surfaces often persistently so; lvs narrow, often linear, entire, or the lower ones a little toothed or with a few narrow lobes, to 13 נ1 cm (excluding the lobes); heads terminating the branches; invol 11-16 mm, its bracts ±striate, with a relatively narrow, often darkened, pectinate or lacerate fringe near the tip; fls mostly blue, sometimes pink, purple, or white, the marginal ones enlarged; pappus 2-3 mm; 2n=24. Fields, roadsides, and waste places; native to the Mediterranean region, widely cult. and now a cosmopolitan weed.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Open Interactive Map
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Jörg Hempel
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University of Florida Herbarium
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Development supported by National Science Foundation Grants (DBI 9983132, BRC 0237418, DBI 0743827, DBI 0847966)
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