Centaurium erythraea

European centaury, European Centaury

Family: Gentianaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

European centaury is a naturalized annual found in northern coastal California, particularly near Crescent City, Eureka, and Fort Bragg, occurring in fields and roadsides at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces delicate pink to white flowers with lobes 4.5 to 8 millimeters long in dense, nearly flat-topped clusters. Growing 20 to 60 centimeters tall with upright stems, it develops a distinctive rosette of basal leaves at its base. Its leaves are notable for their varied shapes, with basal leaves 15 to 70 millimeters long, obovate to widely elliptic and rounded, while cauline leaves are 8 to 50 millimeters long, elliptic to lanceolate and pointed. Each flower cluster is characterized by sessile blooms immediately surrounded by two distinctive bracts.

Habitat: Fields, roadsides

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: NCo (esp near Crescent City, Eureka, Fort Bragg)

California counties: Del Norte, Mendocino, Calaveras, Fresno, Humboldt, Sonoma, Merced, Santa Cruz

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