Centaurea maculosa Lam.
spotted knapweed
Perennial or possibly biennial. Stems erect, ribbed, branched above, 45-80-(100) cm tall, glabrescent or with cobwebby hairs. Lvs not decurrent on stems, with mixed cobwebby and scabrid hairs; lower lvs 2-pinnatisect, 8-15 × 3-5 cm, with narrowly lanceolate segments; upper lvs pinnatifid to simple and linear, becoming smaller. Capitula not clustered. Involucre ovoid, 6-8-(10) mm diam.; outer and middle bracts ovate to oblong, 3-(5)-veined, with cobwebby and very short glandular hairs; appendages erect, fimbriate, not covering bracts, membranous, not narrowed at junction with bract, decurrent on upper 1/2of bract; fimbriae 6-9 on each side, the distal ones brown, 1-1.5 mm long, the proximal ones scarious, united into an auricle. Florets purplish pink, the outer radiate. Corolla sparsely clothed in glandular papillae. Achenes c. 3 mm long, sparsely pubescent; pappus up to 1.5 mm long.
S.: Canterbury (Glenmark near Waipara).
S. C. Europe 1946
Roadsides, grassland.
FL Dec-Feb FT Jan-Mar.
The stout multicipital rootstock of C. maculosa, and its densely-branched many-headed habit are distinctive among the Centaurea spp. naturalised in N.Z. In N.Z., only C. maculosa and C. scabiosa have the appendages both decurrent on the bract margin and tending to form auricles, but C. scabiosa has fewer, larger capitula, and larger achenes with a longer pappus.
