Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Centaurium tenuiflorum

Family

Gentianaceae

Flowering season

June to October

English distribution

It is rare. It is found in only one site in West Dorset.

It may be planted elsewhere.

See the BSBI distribution map for Slender Centaury

Habitat

It grows in open, grassy, damp, unstable and eroding, clay

undercliffs in West Dorset.

Description

Slender Centaury is a native, annual herb, growing up to

35cm, but is usually shorter.

Flowers are usually white and occasionally pink.

They are in a dense cluster and have either 4 or 5 petals

giving a star-like appearance.

They are quite small at only up to 9mm across.

Flowers seem to be fully open only in full sunlight.

In the late afternoon or during overcast conditions, they

remain closed.

There are 4 or 5 stamens.

There are 2 rather woolly stigmas, which are caducous

(they fall off early).

The corolla-tube is slightly longer than the calyx.

The leaves are oval, up to 25mm, sessile and in pairs.

The lower stem leaves are slightly smaller than the upper.

They do not form a basal rosette.

The stem is erect, hairless and branched above the middle

of the stem.