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Centaurea cineraria
Also called Ragwort Knapweed
Centaurea cineraria, the velvet centaurea, is a silver-foliaged species from southern Italy grown mainly for its ornamental foliage, though it can also be used as a flowering plant. It thrives in full sun and well-drained soil, and its treatment as annual or perennial depends on climate.
Centaurea cineraria, the velvet centaurea, also known as dusty miller and silver dust (though these latter two names may also apply to Jacobaea maritima and Silene coronaria), is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae endemic to southern Italy. In natural settings, it grows on coastal cliffs, ranging from 0–350 m above sea level, hence the plant's Italian name, fiordaliso delle scogliere (lit. "cliff cornflower"). Mature plants may reach 80 centimetres (31.5 in) in height. The species produces purple flowers.
Centaurea cineraria is taxonomically complicated, with several described subspecies and significant geographic variation. Members of the C. cineraria group have variously been treated as full species, as subspecies, or simply as regional variations.
Centaurea cineraria is commonly cultivated for its foliage. Depending on climate, it can be grown as either an annual or as a perennial. In cultivation, this species prefers full sun and well-drained soil.
Centaurea cineraria is sometimes referred to as Centaurea gymnocarpa within the horticultural trade, due to both taxonomic confusion and/or potential hybridization between C. cineraria and C. gymnocarpa in cultivation. However, cultivated material seems to mostly consist of C. cineraria in a narrower sense, with some possible introgression from other members of the C. cineraria group (including C. gymnocarpa). True C. gymnocarpa is a rare plant in the wild and likely does not exist in cultivation outside of conservation settings. Despite past work that sometimes treated C. gymnocarpa as conspecific with C. cineraria, current work supports both taxa at the species level.
Centaurea behen · Cornflower · Fiordaliso di Capraia · Maltese star-thistle · Perennial Cornflower · Common Knapweed · Yellow star-thistle · Spotted knapweed · Centaurea tchihatcheffii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Centaurea cineraria by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
