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Centaurium erythraea
Also called Common centaury, Drug centaury, Centaury, Dumpy Centaury, Forking Centaury
European centaury is a small biennial herb in the gentian family, grown from a basal rosette and flowering in summer with pinkish-lavender blooms. It is mainly a wild meadow and roadside plant, and is grown only occasionally for its traditional medicinal use.
Centaurium erythraea is a species of flowering plant in the gentian family known by the names common centaury and European centaury. It is also commonly known as feverfoullie, gentian or centaury.
This centaury is a widespread plant of Europe (including Scotland, Sweden and Mediterranean countries) and parts of western Asia and northern Africa. It has also naturalised in parts of North America, New Zealand, and eastern Australia, where it is an introduced species. It grows in fields and roadsides.
The European centaury is mainly prepared as a tisane for use in traditional medicine.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Centaurium erythraea 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.
