Species: Centaurium exaltatum
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Western Centaury is an annual herb with usually unbranched stems that are 5-25 cm high. The basal leaves are lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic and 5-25 mm long, while those of the stem are longer and narrower. The leaves lack petioles and are opposite each other on the stem. Foliage is glabrous. One to a few erect flowers are borne on 1-4 cm long stalks 1-4 at the top of the stems. The white to light pink flowers have a slender, lobed calyx, 6-9 mm long, which tightly encloses a tubular corolla that flares at the top into 5 spreading petals that are ca. 4 mm long. The 5 stamens are exserted from the corolla tube. The fruit is a slender capsule nearly twice the length of the calyx at maturity.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life
Classification
Dicotyledoneae
Gentianales
Gentianaceae
Centaurium
NatureServe
Classification
Ecology and Life History
Western Centaury is an annual herb with usually unbranched stems that are 5-25 cm high. The basal leaves are lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic and 5-25 mm long, while those of the stem are longer and narrower. The leaves lack petioles and are opposite each other on the stem. Foliage is glabrous. One to a few erect flowers are borne on 1-4 cm long stalks 1-4 at the top of the stems. The white to light pink flowers have a slender, lobed calyx, 6-9 mm long, which tightly encloses a tubular corolla that flares at the top into 5 spreading petals that are ca. 4 mm long. The 5 stamens are exserted from the corolla tube. The fruit is a slender capsule nearly twice the length of the calyx at maturity.
Source: Encyclopedia of Life