Centaurea balsamita
Centaurea balsamita
Süslü sarıbaş
Annual, stem erect, 30-80 cm, with several long 1-capitulate branches in upper part, rarely simple. Stem and branches straw-coloured, glabrescent. Leaves scabrous with very short hairs, entire to denticulate or rarely lower with few coarse teeth at base; lower oblong, withered at flowering time, median and upper gradually smaller and more narrow, ending in a 1-3 mm mucro. Involucre 18-25 x 17-24 mm, ± ovoid with truncate base. Appendages concealing greater part of base of phyllaries, cartilaginous, yellowish to light brown, adpressed, triangular, scarcely decurrent, with 8-12 regular cilia on each side, gradually narrowed into a 3-4 mm spinule. Innermost phyllaries narrowed to a slender often reddish point. Flowers yellow, marginal scarcely radiant, with staminodes. Achenes 5-6 mm; pappus 4-5 mm, scabrous to barbellate, inner row 1 mm. Fl. 7. Steppe, fallow fields; 650-1900 m.
Anti-Lebanon, Transcaucasia, Iran, Turkestan. Ir.-Tur. element.
