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Perennial Cornflower

Perennial Cornflower

Centaurea montana

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How common: Common

Alien species

Perennial Cornflower is a robust, long-lived garden flower with big, spiky-looking blue heads that resemble the familiar field cornflower. It is widely grown and sometimes escapes into nearby rough grass or edges.

Did you know?

  • If the faded heads are removed, it often blooms again later in summer.
  • Garden forms also exist in white, yellow, pale pink and deep purplish-red.

About the species

Identification

Clump-forming perennial 30–80 cm tall from creeping roots. Stems are usually unbranched, with narrow ridges and sparse hairs. Leaves are stalkless, narrow oval and smooth-edged, often hairy underneath. Flower heads are large (5–8 cm) and few, usually one at a stem tip: the outer rays are long and ragged, most often deep blue; the center is purplish-red. Garden forms may be white, yellow or pink. Like the field cornflower, but this species is perennial with broader leaves and much larger, mostly solitary heads on unbranched stems. Flowers in Finland in June–July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Flowering

Jun–Jul

About the habitat

Grows in sunny to lightly shaded places, especially at borders and along grassy or woodland edges; widely cultivated as a hardy ornamental. Found mainly as a long-lived garden plant and as an escape near houses and settlements.

Sources

Photo: Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6131161934

Text: Pinkka: Viheralueiden kasvit - Perennat ja ryhmäkasvit: 2-sirkkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39908

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuorikaunokki

See also