Zeltnera muehlenbergii

Monterey centaury, Monterey Centaury

Family: Gentianaceae · Type: annual · Native

Monterey centaury is a California native annual found in the Sierra Nevada foothills and central western California on moist coastal bluffs and forest openings at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from June to August, this delicate plant produces white to pale pink flowers with rounded lance-oblong corolla lobes 2 to 7 millimeters long. Growing with slender stems 3 to 30 centimeters tall, it displays a distinctive branching structure with varying leaf shapes. Its leaves range from lower obovate to oblong forms measuring 15 to 25 millimeters long, with upper leaves becoming lance-elliptic. The plant's open inflorescence features flowers with pedicels up to 10 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Moist coastal bluffs, forest openings

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: SNF, CW

California counties: Butte, Monterey, Marin, Contra Costa, Placer, Sutter, Colusa, Calaveras, Santa Barbara, Napa, Sonoma, Humboldt, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Trinity, Mendocino, Tehama, San Luis Obispo, El Dorado, Mariposa, Solano, Sacramento, Yolo, Yuba, Lake, 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.