Centaurea leucophaea

Centaurea leucophaea is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae endemic to the western Mediterranean, principally southeastern France and adjacent Italy, where it grows on dry, sunny limestone slopes, garrigue, and stony grassland. It forms a basal rosette of grey-green, pinnately divided to lyrate leaves with narrow, often lobed segments, from which arise erect, branched flowering stems 20-60 cm tall covered in a fine, whitish-tomentose pubescence that gives the species its pale appearance. From late spring into summer the stems bear solitary to few flower heads 25-40 mm across; the involucral bracts have pale, finely pectinate-fringed appendages, and the disc florets are bright pink to rose-purple. Achenes are short, ribbed, and crowned with a short pappus of bristles. The species is variable and several subspecies have been recognised across its limited natural range.