''Centaurea jacea'', brown knapweed or brownray knapweed, is a species of

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

s in the genus ''

Centaurea ''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding reg ...

'' native to dry meadows and open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It grows to tall, and flowers mainly from June to September. Centaurea jacea Knoopkruid

In Britain and America, it is often found as a hybrid of black knapweed, '' Centaurea nigra''. Unlike the black knapweed, the flower heads always look as if they are rayed, forming a more open star rather than a brush-like tuft. '' Centaurea ×moncktonii'' is a fertile hybrid between black knapweed and brown knapweed.

References

External links

* jacea Flora of Norway Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Maghreb Flora of Andorra {{Cynareae-stub