Common Knapweed - Centaurea nigra sensu lato (=nigra/debauxii)

Medium to tall hairy plant with erect stems, branched or unbranched. Thickened below the flowerhead. Flowerheads purple, 20 to 40 mm, solitary or in branched clusters, the florets all equal in length. Flower bracts with a broad, blackish triangular fringed appendage, concealing the adjacent bracts. Centaurea nigra and Centaurea debauxii are very similar and require detailed examination (see ID aids below) - there are also other quite similar species and hybrids. Unless you are able to get expert confirmation to species level, please record Common Knapweed as Centaurea nigra sensu lato.

Greater Knapweed Centaurea scabiosa. 

C. debeauxii may be present, on more calcareous soils or introduced via seed or building rubble; it was formerly considered to be C nigra subsp. nemoralis. 

Centaurea jacea (Brown Knapweed) has brown phyllaries and is a very rare alien species. There is only one VC55 record from Evington in 2018, but it may be introduced in wildflower mixes. Its hybrid with C. nigra (C. x gerstlaureri) has dark brown phyllaries and has not been found in  VC55.

See the Identification Aid below for help on separating the Centaurea nigra look-alikes.

Roadsides, flower meadows, hedgebanks and waste ground.

June to September.

Perennial.

Very common throughout Britain.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 561 of the 617 tetrads.