Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Centaurium calycosum (Buckley) Fernald
- Family: Gentian (Gentianaceae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: The Centaurium differs from all others in having its pink petal-lobes more than 1/3 inch long.
- Habitat: Along streams, in marshes.
- Habit: Annual or biennial herb with a thickened taproot.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched or sparsely branched, up to 2 feet tall, smooth, 4-sided, narrowly winged.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, elliptic to oblanceolate, up to 3 inches long, more or less pointed at the tip, tapering to the sessile base, without teeth, smooth.
- Flowers: Few in a cyme, each flower on a slender stalk up to 1 1/2 inches long.
- Sepals: Usually 5, united below, green, up to 1/2 inch long, with very slender teeth smooth.
- Petals: Usually 5, united below to form an elongated tube, pink, the tube up to 1/2 inch long or longer, with a yellow center, the lobes more than 1/3 inch long.
- Stamens: Usually 5, exserted beyond the tube of the petals; anthers twisted after shedding pollen.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules cylindrical, 1/3-1/2 inch long, smooth, containing many small, nearly spherical, dark brown seeds.
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Return to Species List -- Group 7
Next Species -- Tall Centaury (Centaurium exaltatum)
