The mountain cornflower is a plant found in most of the mountain areas of Europe; in Italy it is present, but rare, in the Alps and in the central Apennines (the specimens in the photos were photographed on the Monti della Laga).
It is practically absent from the southern regions and the islands.
SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION
Family: Asteraceae (or Compositae)
Subfamily: Tubuliferae. Genus: Centaurea
CURIOSITIES
About 500 species of the genus Centaurea are known, and they can be annual, biennial or perennial. The most famous species is “the common cornflower”, Centaurea cyanus L., which, because of the indiscriminate use of weedkillers, is now at risk of disappearing from our landscapes. The name of the genus comes from Greek and means “centaur's herb”.
Legend has it that the centaur Chiron, wounded by mistake by Hercules with an arrow soaked in the blood of the Hydra, being learned and a deep connoisseur of herbs, treated himself with a Centaurea poultice. In the language of flowers the cornflower stands for sweetness.
Among the flowers of the high meadows, discover also the globeflower (Trollius europaeus).
Fact sheet
- Range and distribution
- The mountain cornflower is a plant found in most of the mountain areas of Europe; in Italy it is present, but rare, in the Alps and in the central Apennines (the specimens in the photos were photographed on the Monti della Laga). It is practically absent from the southern regions and the islands. It grows on dry ground, fine high meadows, in clearings and woods from 300 to 1900 m.
- Habit
Perennial plant, often rhizomatous, herbaceous in appearance. Where it grows it tends to carpet the ground. It has erect, sturdy, winged stems, simple or sparsely branched, slightly hairy, 50 to 70 cm tall.
- Leaves
Leaves 9-13 cm long, alternate, oval, lanceolate, linear and pointed at the tip, long
decurrent straight from the stem; the upper ones are often longer than the flower heads and are covered, especially the young ones, with white hairs that give them a slightly tomentose, woolly look.- Flowers and fruit
The flowers are radiate, with linear lobes of a vivid blue. The inner part of the flower is purplish.
The fruits are achenes topped by a long pappus.
- Bark
- Herbaceous plant with no bark.
- Uses
- It has no particular medicinal uses apart from a general febrifuge (fever-reducing) property. Its main use is in infusions, to flavour mulled wine and to make digestifs and aperitifs. Thanks to its bitter properties it is a strong appetite stimulant.