Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Tyrol Knapweed - Centaurea nigrescens   Willdenow
Members of Asteraceae:
Members of Centaurea with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Asterales » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorWilldenow
DistributionSpecimens have been seen from 3 counties: Buncombe in 1937, Haywood in 1936 and 1938, and Alleghany in 2009. The Haywood specimens were misidentified as C. nigra until 2020. It seems odd that RAB (1968) did not include the species, despite at least one early collection.

Native of Europe; in N.A. Que. to Ont. and WI, south to NC and MO; also some western states.
AbundanceVery rare.
HabitatCity park, moist pastures, roadside.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting July-October.
IdentificationTyrol Knapweed has long and showy rose-purple ray florets and the phyllary bodies are not obscured by black appendages. Black Knapweed (C. nigra) can be told by its black, deeply fringed appendages that generally obscure the phyllaries (bracts surrounding the base of a head). It also lacks ray florets.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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