CYANUS SEGETUM

Family and Genus:- See- Compositae/Subgen. CYANUS

Common Names:- Cornflower.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Centaurea cyanus.

Meaning:- Cyanus (L) Azure, blue.

Segetum (L) Of cornfields, growing amongst crops.

General description:- Medium to tall annual.

Stem:-

1) 20-80 cm, slender, erect, usually branched above, grey-cottony.

Leaves:-

1) Floccose beneath, glabrescent and green.

a) lower, lanceolate, entire, remotely dentate or lyrately pinnatisect with 1-3

linear or lanceolate segments on each side, acute, petiolate.

b) Upper, linear-lanceolate, entire.

Flowers:-

1) 15-30 mm, solitary.

2) Florets:

a) outer, spreading, much longer than the inner. dark blue, rarely white or

purple.

b) inner, bluish-violet.

4) Involucre, 12-13 mm in diam., ovoid-globose.

5) Bracts, narrowly fringed with brown or silver.

6) Appendage, of middle phyllaries narrowly decurrent, brown or blackish, with

silvery fimbriae c. l mm.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, 3·5-4 mm.

2) Pappus, slightly shorter 3-4 mm.

Key features:-

1) Lower leaves, lanceolate, acute.

2) Appendages, brown, fimbriae c. 1 mm.

2) Pappus, 3-4 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Weed of cereal fields and olive groves.100-1100 m.

Distribution:- Sicily, the Balkans and Turkey; widely naturalised elsewhere in the

Mediterranean. Limited distribution and rare on Crete.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton