Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Cornflower - Cyanus segetum   Hill
Members of Asteraceae:
Only member of Cyanus in NC.
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Section 6 » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorHill
DistributionThroughout the state, with gaps in the southern Mountains and southern Coastal Plain. First collected in 1896 on roadsides on the Biltmore Estate, Buncombe County.

Native of Mediterranean Europe; in N.A. throughout.
AbundanceFairly common to common in most of the Piedmont, Sandhills, and Coastal Plain, except scarce in the outer Coastal Plain. Uncommon in the Mountains, mainly in the northern counties.
HabitatRoadsides, railroad margins, fields, pastures, meadows, campus weed, vacant lots. Often used in roadside beautification projects.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting April-September.
IdentificationCornflower is very familiar non-native wildflower, owing to its rich blue flower color. It is a much-branched annual 1-2 (or even 3) feet tall. The stems and lance-shaped to linear leaves are mostly covered with cobwebby hairs. The bright and medium to dark blue ray florets are striking, and to most laypeople are the "blue-est" flowers they would normally see outside of gardens.
Taxonomic CommentsLong known as Centaurea cyanus.

Other Common Name(s)Bachelor's-buttons
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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