Centaurea iberica
Iberian star-thistle, Iberian Star-Thistle
Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native
Iberian star-thistle is a naturalized perennial herb found in southern North Coast Ranges Interior, northern and central Sierra Nevada Foothills, central Great Valley, Central Western California, southern Southern California, and Peninsular Ranges at elevations below 1,000 meters in disturbed places. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces rose-pink to white flowers in disciform heads with distinctive spiny involucres 15 to 18 millimeters long. Growing 50 to 100 centimeters tall with openly branched stems that are loosely tomentose and becoming somewhat glabrous, it has a resinous appearance. Its leaves range from deeply lobed proximal leaves 10 to 20 centimeters long to more oblong distal leaves that are entire or slightly toothed, with short rough hairs when young. The fruit is approximately 3 millimeters long, white or straw-colored, with sparse pappus bristles 1 to 2.5 millimeters in length.
Habitat: Disturbed places
Bloom period: Jun-Aug
Elevation: < 1000 m
Bioregions: s NCoRI, n&c SNF, c GV, CW, s SCo, PR
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.