10-3-2025 DAIMUS, VALENCIA - KNAPWEED (Centaurea seridis)

Centaurea seridis is a species of Centaurea found in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It is native to Albania, Algeria, Baleares, France, Italy, Morocco, Sicilia, and Spain. It has been introduced into Madeira. 

It has been registered as an invasive species in Portugal.

26-2-2025 PLATJA DE GARROFERA, LES GAVINES - KNAPWEED (Centaurea seridis)

Centaurea seridis is a species of perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Centaurea in the family Asteraceae.

It is a rhizomatous herbaceous plant, quite tomentose, with winged stems. The leaves are large (the basal ones exceed 30 cm in length and 5 cm in width), the upper ones are decurrent on the stem. The capitula have a thick spherical involucre (about 3 cm in diameter) whose bracts have more than 5 rigid spines, of equal length, which emerge from the same height and reach more than 5 mm. 1

It is distributed throughout the western Mediterranean basin in grasslands, fields and roads near the coast.

Centaurea seridis was described by Carl Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum , vol. 2, p. 915 [1] , 1753. 2

Centaurea : generic name that comes from the Greek kentauros , horse-men who knew the properties of medicinal plants.

seridis : epithet

Accepted varieties

Centaurea seridis subsp. bloody (Willd.) Dostál

Centaurea seridis subsp. maritima (Dufour) Dostál

Centaurea seridis subsp. sonchifolia (L.) Greuter