Zeltnera exaltata

Tall centaury, desert centaury, Desert Centaury

Family: Gentianaceae · Type: annual · Native

Tall centaury is a California native annual found in the northeastern California, southern Coast Ranges, San Gabriel Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and western edge of the Sonoran Desert in moist, generally alkaline scrub at elevations of 900 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces delicate white to pale pink flowers with lance-oblong lobes 2.5 to 7 millimeters long. Growing 10 to 60 centimeters tall with slender, upright stems, it forms a distinctive rosette of similar leaves at its base. Its leaves are oblong-elliptic to linear, measuring 10 to 30 millimeters long, arranged uniformly along the stem. The plant features an open inflorescence with flower pedicels typically 10 to 70 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Moist, generally alkaline scrub

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 900-2200 m

Bioregions: CaR, SCoR, SnGb, PR, GB, w edge DSon

California counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Tehama, Santa Barbara, Modoc, Fresno, Lassen, Riverside, Inyo, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Kern, Mendocino, San Benito

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