Centaurea pouzinii

Pouzin's star-thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Pouzin's star-thistle is a naturalized perennial herb found in northern coastal California around Humboldt County and southern California near Corona in Riverside County, inhabiting pastures, grasslands, and disturbed places at elevations below 120 meters. Flowering from June to December, this plant produces pink-purple flowers in heads 14 to 17 millimeters long with distinctive stiffly spreading phyllary appendages featuring spines 6 to 20 millimeters long. Growing 2 to 10 meters tall with bushy, often mounded habit, it develops erect or wide-spreading stems that are branched throughout and slightly angled. Its leaves are finely cobwebby, with basal leaves 10 to 20 centimeters long deeply divided into narrow lobes, and upper stem leaves becoming progressively more linear and divided. The fruit is 2.5 to 4 millimeters long, ranging in color from white to dark brown with occasional brown streaking.

Habitat: Pastures, grassland, disturbed places

Bloom period: Jun-Dec

Elevation: < 120 m

Bioregions: NCoR (Humboldt Co.), SCo (near Corona, Riverside Co.)

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