Common Name

Branched Centaury

Family

Gentianaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb to 40cm tall. Leaves opposite each other, 1.5-4cm long, 5-15mm wide, flat, hairless. Flowers red to pink, tubular, with five lobes, in an open repeatedly forked group at the top of the stem, each branching point of the group with a single flower subtended by a pair of leaflike bracts, each branch ending in a flower.

Differs from Schenkia australis in that both branches of the inflorescence are about the same size.

Description and photograph of flowering plant in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 550

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Centaurium~tenuiflorum