Centaurea cyanus

Bachelor's button, cornflower, Cornflower

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Bachelor's button is a naturalized annual found in California's Central Valley and Coastal Ranges in grasslands, open woodlands, and disturbed areas at elevations generally up to 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces striking blue flowers (occasionally white to purple) with radiant heads 10 to 16 millimeters wide, featuring fringed green or purple phyllary tips with white to black teeth. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with a single erect stem that branches toward the top, it has an open, panicle-like cluster of flower heads. Its leaves are green to gray, thinly to densely covered in soft hair, with lower leaves reaching 3 to 10 centimeters long and often entire or few-lobed, while upper leaves are linear and minimally toothed. The fruit is 4 to 5 millimeters long, straw-colored with a hint of blue, and covered in fine short hairs.

Habitat: Grassland, open woodland, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: generally <= 1500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, MP

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.