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.
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.